
fJass Fill 
Copyright N?. 

COPYRIGHT DEPCSfT. 



SOME 



Old Historic Landmarks 



OF 

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND, 

DESCRIBED IN 

A HAND-BOOK FOR THE TOURIST 

OVER THE 

Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon 
Electric Railway,. 

BY • ' ' ■.■•-.. 



W. H. SNOWDEN, A. M. 

1 OF ANDALUSIA, VA. 

i VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AUTHOR OF 
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF NEW JERSEY, 
VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND, &C. 



Fourth Edition of Five Thousand. 

COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED. 



ALEXANDRIA, VA: 

PRINTED BY G. If. RAMEY & SON 

1902. 



r 111 

.Sim 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 

One Otrr Beoetvso 

APR, 24 1903 

ConKWHT EKTHV 

OLA8» «^XXo. Mo- 
COPY A. 



~ 



L^ 



Copyright, J902. 



15 Y 



William H. Snowdex. 



To The Reader. 



This Hand Book makes no pretentions to literary excellence, nor fine 
typographical display. The only aim of the author in its preparation has 
been historical accuracy and the acceptable presentation of much and varied 
information in a little compass andatasmall cost. It is merely an epitome 
of a Library E iition of much greater scope, with many more subjects and 
illustrations, to be published hereafter. 

While the Book is offered nominally as a guide to locate important 
places for the tourist, and to briefly narrate whatever of historic interest per- 
tains to each of them, it is also designed for more than a mere itinerary to be 
hastily read and then carelessly thrown aside as being of no further value. 

Some there may be of its readers it is hoped, who will find its contents of 
sufficient interest to take home for household reading and preservation. 

We are now in an age when there is a far greater desire among all classes 
of our ptople than ever before for inquiry into whatever relates to or throws 
new light upon the work, the struggle, the progress, manners and usages of 
the generations of the earlier days. 

Some repetitions of facts and occurences will be found in reading the 
different chapters on account of their having been written at different times, for 
which the reader's indulgence is asked. The thanks of the author is due to 
such of his friends as have contributed to the work, and especially to Mis-. 
Eigenie DeLand of Washington City for her numerous pictorial designs. 
In the book will be found not only a summary of the life, services, and char- 
acter of General Washington, and a description of his home, his farms, and 
his farming operations, and the changes which have been incident to his land 
estate since his passing away, but also descriptions of numerous other outlying 
historic landmarks on both shores of the Potomac. The writer trusts that the 
book, hastily preparei in brief intervals of pressing duties, may prove an ac- 
ceptable companion , to all strangers wayfaripg among the many interesting 
historic points which will be open to them by' this convenient and delight- 
ful route of travel to the Home and Tomb of the venerated Washington. 

W. H. S. 



STATIONS HND DISTANCES. 

Miles. Miles Miles 

Washington o.o Lloyd 5.7 Areturus 12.8 

Alexander Island . . 2.1 Braddock . . . • • ■ 6.0 Herbert Springs . . 12.9 

Arlington Junction . 2.7 Spring Park 6.7 Snowden 13. 1 

Addison 3.2 Alexandria ... * • 7.7 Grassymead .... 13. 1 

Four Mile Run • * '4.1 New Alexandria • • ■ 9.6 Hunter 14.2 

St Elmo 4.8 Dyke ...*••. 11. 3 Riverside . . . • • 14.7 

St Asaph 5.1 Bellmont 12-1 Mount Vernon . . . 15. 8 

Del Ray 5.6 Wellington . . . .12.5 

The tourist who boards the train of the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon 
Electric Railway at the corner of Thirteen and a half street and Pennsylvania Avenue 
in the National Capital, for a ride to the Home and Tomb of George Washington will 
pass through a region of country whose every locality bears the vivid impress of most 
interesting as well as important historical associations, reaching back through nearly 
three hundred years of the beginnings and progress of our country in the march of 
civilization and advancement. 

On every stream and thoroughfare, in every valley and on every hill crest there is 
some memento or land mark, in whatever direction the eye may range to remind of the 
pioneers who transformed the wastes of the wilderness, marked the bounds of the 
homesteads, laid the hearth stones, established the neighborhoods and set up the altars 
of the Virginia Commonwealth. Aside from the great historic interest which pertains 
to every portion of the way of this desirable route to Mount Vernon, there is also for 
the tourist a pleasing diversity of natural scenery, of which the broad skirting river 
forms a very attractive part. 

As the train passes down 14th street towards the Potomac, the beautifully diversi- 
fied grounds of the Agricultural Department, those of the Smithsonian Institute and 
of the National Museum and the Botanical Gardens, comprising a large area reaching 
to the foot of the Capitol may be seen on the left. The extensive and varied collect 
tions in the spacious buildings of these grounds from all lands and climes amply illustrat- 
ing the mineral, animal and vegetable Kingdoms of nature will well repay a visit. On 
the right are the monumental grounds from which rises the great shaft erected to the 
memory of General George Washington. This structure rises to the height of a little 
over 555 feet above ground level and 6co feet above mean tide water, and is the highest 
work of masoarj in the world. 

It is built of granite and marble and contained in its wall is a block of native copper 

„ . 00 pounds from Lake Michigan. Its foundations are of blue stone laid 16 

1. The topmost stone weighs over 3000 pounds. The whole structure is 

by a point of aluminium 9^4inches high and 5^ inches square at its base 

ounces, the cost of which was £225. Whiter than silver and not liable to 

corrosion this point as the sunlight strikes it, glistens like a huge diamond or an intense 

electric light. The base of the shaft is 55 feet square, with walls 15 feet thick. The 

ufe weighs more than Soooo tons. Just under the pyiamidon or pinnace 

tforrn with an area ofn67 feet from which, through eight windows the 

ignificent prospects of the surrounding country. Here, the walls are 18 

thick. The corner stone was laid July 4th, 1848, and finished in 1SS5 at a 

0,000. On an average 500 visitors ascend the monument daily at a yearly 

overment of $20,000. 



6 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 




WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 



The top of the great structure is reached by an 
elevator, and also a stairway of 50 flights of steps, 
each fright consisting of eighteen s'teps— 900 in all. 
Within the walls of this structure there is room 
enough to contain a thousand persons. Like the 
great dome of the Capitol, this massive shaft from its 
commanding height is a conspicuous land mark for 
many miles distant in all the approaches to "Washing- 
ton. Being so high and isolated from other sur- 
rounding objects it has been struck numbers of times 
by lightning but without material injury. Strange 
to say, but it is nevertheless a fact established by nice 
and careful experiments, that this massive monument 
so deeply and broadly founded, has a daily leaning 
movement toward the sun, amounting at times to 
four or five inches. 

In close proximity to the monument is the National 
Bureau of Printing and Engraving, where are printed 
all the paper currency and postage stamps of the 
government. 

Emerging from the National Capital the train 
crosses the Potomac River by the Long Bridge into 
Alexandria county, Virginia. This bridge with its 
causeway built in 1808 is one mile long and has a 
wide draw over the main channel of the stream through which large sailing vessels and 
steamers may pass up to the port of Georgetown two miles beyond, which place is at the 
head of a tide water navigation reaching down by a continually widening and deepening 
stretm, until at its confluence with the waters of Chesapeake bay, 10S miles, it is seven 
miles in width. The distance from the Capital to the Atlantic Ocean is 185 miles. 
To Norfolk 210 miles. Fifty miles below the Capital the water becomes salty. The 
head waters of the Potomac are in the Alleghany mountains and its entire length is 
about 400 miles. This river was called by the Indians Cohongoruton. "Ri c- of 
Swans. 1 ' Before the advent of the white man the haughty Algonquins had their tribal 
town or Capital where the superb city now lifts its 
domes and towers. The corner stone of the Capi- 
tol was laid with masonic ceremonies by George 
Washington in 1793. He was then serving the 
first year of his second term as president. Harper's 
Ferry where the Shenandoah joins the Potomac is 
fifty miles distant. Great Falls eighteen miles. 

The first white man whoever gazed upon the fair 
face of the Potomac and its beautiful landscapes 
was that renowned adventurer Captain John Smith, 
one of the Jamestown colony who with fourteen 
companions in an open barge in the spring of 1608 
explored its majestic course through the unbroken 
wilderness from the Chesapeake to the head of tide 
water a few miles above the present site of the 
Capital. From his notes and observations he made 
a map of the lands bordering the stream, with their 
numerous affluents and various Indian settlements, 
which is still extant in his quaint book of travels 
and explorations. 

The flits in front of the city and over which 
Long Bridge and its causeway passes consist of 
1 >out 1000 acres, and are now being transformed 
1 the government into avast insular park and CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 




OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. I 

when laid out with roads and walks and planted with trees and shrubbery as contem- 
plated, will be a place of great beauty and attraction. 

Over the famous Long Bridge most of the great armies marching for the defence of the 
Union from the loyal states of the republic, entered Virginia during the civil war from 
1861 10 1S65. Not far from the western end of the bridge along the Columbia turn- 
pike may still be seen remains of Old Fort Runyon, built by the union troops — the 
first military works raised fqr the, protection of Washington against t;he advah'ce of the 
secession forces, and which' was then the base of the first picketing aud skirmishing 
operations of the great conflict. These defences were commenced by daylight of May 
24th, 1861. To Runyon's New Jersey brigade, second, third and fourth regiments be- 
longs the honor of constructing this, one of the strongest of the forts, and it was named 
for the brigade's commanding officer — Gen'l Theodore Runyon. The old works are now 
in the midst of the extensive brick yards of Brick Haven and Waterloo. A portion of 
them yet remain, but the greater part of the historic clay thrown up here by the boys 
in blue of '6i now does service in the walls of Washington houses. The perimeter of 
this fort exceeded that of any of the other forts in the chain, covering an area ( of about 
twelve acres, and its armament consisted of twenty-three guns, one 'of which was a 
thirty pounder rifled Parrott, eight were eight inch sea, coast howitzers,^ ten were thirty- 
two pounders and four six pounder field guns p all, mounted on barbette carriages^ T^hese 
were manned by 315 men. A strong stockade fronted .the marsh between the fort and 
the river. Fort Albany was in the immediate vicinity to the westward and Fort 
Jackson was to the northward. 

While the great line of defences was in course of construction by the armed mul- 
titudes who swarmed all the hills and valleys from Washington to Great Hunting 
creek, the *Long Bridge played a very prominent part in the startling activities of the 
war. Over its broad thoroughfare passed unceasingly, night and day, railway mili- 
tary trains, commissary supply wagons, hurrying regiments of infantry, cavalry and 
artillery, dashing couriers and clattering mounted orderlies. The Capital was filled 
with contractors, speculators and adventurers of every description, and with relatives 
and friends of the soldiers, all of whom found their way over the river by this bridge 
to the numerous encampments. 

A new steel bridge with capacity to accommodate the great and increasing railway 
and other travel over the stream, and of architectural design, in harmony with the pro- 
posed plans for the beautifying of the National Capital, is already in course ofconstuc- 
tion to take the place of^he qld structure. 




THE OLD LONG BRIDGE ACROSS THE POTOMAC. 
*If any of the boys in blue who came clown from the loyal states in the early sixties for the defence of the 
Union, crossing the bridge, had imagined that they were on a holiday excursion to see gay ano easy tmes 
their visions were soon dispelled when they began the incessant drills and the laborious' work' of erecting 
the great lines of defences about the National Capital. 



5 POME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

On either side of the river, both in Virginia and Maryland, the hills presented a 
continuation of heights which commanded the territory lying beyond, and these were 
quickly taken advantage of by the engineering department of the United States army. 
Strong embankments were thrown up, powerful guns were placed in position, and in 
order to give the widest range for execution, forests were leveled and in some instances 
houses and barns removed, so that the enemy would have no chance to come upon the 
city unawares. The forts were constructed of earth, timber and masonry in the most 
careful and thorough manner. They contained wells, bombproofs and magazines; 
were surrounded by ditches, fringed and planted with abbatis of sharp-pointed branch- 
es and were armed variously. Well nigh forty years of peace have passed since these 
defences were constructed. To-day, hardly one of them remains intact as when the 
notes of reveille and tatoo sounded in their midst. Nearly all of them have been de- 
molished. Tne ramparts have been leveled, the ditches and rifle pits filled: and the 
plowshare of the farmer is again passing over them as before the war. As the forts 
were erected and provided with their armaments, they were as quickly garrisoned by the 
troops that poured into Washington from the north, and many of the bravest and best 
of the soldiers who fought for the perpetuity of the government saw their first service 
in the forts around Washington. 

THE SYSTEM OF DEFENSES. 

By the ist of January, 1862, the entire defensive line, mounting about 500 guns, was 
in an advanced condition, although not completed. It was not, indeed, until the summer 
of 1865 that they were in anything like a finished shape. When completed the works 
comprised 62 forts with 44 supporting batteries, the whole having an armament of over 
1,000 guns and requiring 16,000 men to properly man them. The first suggestion to 
erect fortifications was made early in May, 1861, by Gen. Mansfield, who was then in 
command of the troops in the city, and he indicated Arlington Heights as the best 
place to begin. By the 24th of that month Forts Ellsworth, Runyon, Albany and 
Corcoran were established for the special purpose of protection to the approaches 
of the bridges and ferries on the Potomac. It was not until the first battle of Bull 
Run had been fought, however, that a systematic plan of defense was thought of. 
After the battle of Bull Run the cluster of commanding heights, four miles west of 
Alexandria and six miles from Washington, were occupied by the confederates, but in 
October of that year the hills were again taken possession of and fortified by the Union 
troops. The system of works constituting what are called the defenses of Washington 
were divided into four groups: First, those south of the Potomac, commencing with 
Fort Willard below Alexandria, and terminating with Fort Smith, opposite George- 
town, comprising twenty-nine forts and eleven supporting batteries; second, Forts 
Ethan Allen and Marcy at the Virginia end of the Chain bridge, with their five bat- 
teries for field guns: third, those north of the Potomac and between that river and the 
Anacostia, commencing with Fort Sumner and terminating with Fort Lincoln, com- 
prising nineteen forts, four batteries armed with heavy guns and twenty-three batteries 
of field guns: fourth, those south of the Anacostia, commencing with Fort Mahon at 
ning and terminating with Fort Greble at Oxon run, nearly opposite Alexandria, 
comprising twelve forts and one armed battery. 

Looking to the left beyond the reclaimed flats from this end of the bridge may be 
seen at the junction of Anacostia with the Potomac, the Arsenal, containing a museum 
of heavy and small arms, antique and modern, in which may be studied by the curious 
in such things, their wonderful evolution from their primitive forms and processes of 
loading and firing, Among the artillery are many guns which have been captured in 
various battles and sieges. The arsenal grounds are notable as having been the place 
where the chief conspirators in the assasination of President Lincoln were hanged. 

In full view to the right of the bridge on an elevation overlooking a vast and 

d landscape of cities, highlands and river, stands the classic home of George 

W rshington Parke Custis, adopted son of George Washington and grandson of Martha 

Washington, erected in 1S02. The place is known as Arlington. The large estate 

consisting of 1160 acres on the death of Mr. Custis in 1S57 became the prop- 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 




erty of Gen Robt. E. Lee who had married his daughter and only child Mary Ann. 
Mr. Custis had inherited his estate from his father John Parke Custis who purchased it 
of Gerrard Alexander in 1745. 

General Lee became the leader of the seces- 
sion armies and the estate in those troublous 
times being unoccupied by its owner was in 
1863 sold nnder the confiscation act for the 
payment of the direct tax which had been lev- 
ied upon it for $92.00 and became the prop- 
erty of the U. S. Government which took pos- 
session of the premises and set apart 200 acres 
of the domain for the interment of dead sol- 
diers of the Union Army. In this National 
Cemetery specially laid out and beautified with 
reference to the patriotic purposes in view, 
nearly 20,000 soldiers have been buried from 
battlefields, hospitals and homes. The- cere- 
monies at this beautiful place on every Deco- 
ari.ington mansion. ration Day under the direction and loving care 

of the Grand Army of the Republic are very imposing and always attract many thou- 
sands of the surviving veterans and friends of the departed. South Carolina seceeded 
from the Union in December, i860 and Col. Lee remained at his post in the United 
States army. Other States followed and he kept his place. Fort Sumpter was fired 
upon and the United States troops had a collision with the citizens of Baltimore and 
still he adhered to the government. But on the 19th of April, 1861 the convention in 
session in Virginia, passed the ordinance of secession and united her fate with that of 
the south. Col. Lee then believing that his allegiance was first due to his native state, 
resigned his commission and joined the Southern confederacy. 

The title of the Government to all of the Arling- 
ton domain has been perfected since the convey- 
ance by the confiscation act, by acknowledged sat- 
isfactory values $150,000, to the legal heirs of the 
property. This interesting locality with its great 
natural beauties, its adornments of art, its shaded 
walks and drives, its fine panoramic views and its 
sacred burial associations the tourist shculd not 
overlook or pass by. It may be reached every hour 
of the day by the cars of the Electric road. 

From Addison Station just beyond the brick 
works, a mile to the left and on the Potomac bank 
still stands the old Custis homestead of Abingdon 
where the three sisters of the Arlington proprietor — 
Nellie Custis, who became Mrs. Lawrence Lewis of 
Woodlawn, Elizabeth Custis afterwards Mrs. 
Thomas Law and Martha Custis afterwards Mrs. 
Thomas Peters were born. They were the children 
of Col. John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert, 
daughter of Benedict Calvert of Mount Airv. Mary; 
land. Their father, Col. John Custis son of Martha 
Dandridge Custis died of camp fever contracted in 
the siege ofYoiktown, 1781 and their grandmother 
Martha again changed her name in 1759 and went 
to live with Col. George Washington at Mount Vernon 
pertains to Abingdon and its first occupants. 

At Addison Station may be seen the dry bed of the channel of the Old Georgetown 
and Alexandria Canal, a branch of the great commercial water way connecting tide 




COL. 



ROriKRT E. LEE AT 40. 

Much interesting history 



10 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



water of the Potomac with navigation on the Ohio, a distance of 360 miles, an enter- 
prise commenced in 1828, and which grew out of the efforts of the projectors of the 
"Potomac Company" of 1784 of whom George Washington was the most prominent 
worker. 

Along Four Mile run which the electric road crosses, four miles from the Capital 
General Washington owned several hundred acres of land, and near its head waters, 
where the Old Columbia pike crosses them he had mills, from which were shipped 
cargos of flour to the West Indies in the earlier Colonial times. Then, the run unvex- 
ed by bridges was deep and navigable for sea going craft. On this stream was 
situated the convalescent camp of the civil war. 

From Four Mile Run to Alexandria, four miles beyond, the road passes through a 
beautifully undulating and fertile stretch of country, which suburban improvement is 
invading and gradually dotting with handsome residences. Through this stretch the 
contemplated avenue or boulevard from Arlington and the Memorial Bridge to Mt. 
Vernon, a distance of seventeen miles, when constructed, will doubtless pass. 




A — ."■ 






ABINGDON HOUSE — BIRTH-PLACE OF NELLIE CUSTIS. 

At Spring Park Station the road strikes the Leesburg Turnpike, the Old Military 
highway over which General Edward Braddock and most of.hisarmy of British re- 
gulars and provincial troopers marched in the spring of 1755 to expel the French and 
their Indian allies from the lands of the Ohio river. The regulars consisted of the 44th 
regiment under Col. Peter Halket and the 48th commanded by Col. Thomas Dunbar, 
mustering 500 men, each with supplies and provisions and about 800 provincial troops. 

The Lraddock road ay regulars and provincials rmule their slow and wearisome march 

i- still a way and a highway, holding its course to the mountains though not as then rugged with stumps of 
lowed by unbroken forests but graded and smoothed for easy and pleasant 
and lying through a region of farms and hamlets. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



11 



They left Alexandria, then but a straggling hamlet in the forest, the second week in 
April, and reached the Ohio borders the first week in July ensuing, marching a distance 
of more than 300 miles through an unbroken wilderness with swollen streams innum- 
erable to ford, and rugged hills and mountains to toil over. The disastrous battle 
was fought on the ninth of July. Out of 86 officers, 26 were killed, among them Brad- 
dock and Halket. The army after the battle, 
under Col. Dunbar marched to Philadelphia and 
went into winter quarters. 

For Braddock's obstinacy in refusing to listen 
to the advice given him by old Indian fighters as 
to the modes of co'nducting the campaign, which 
latter he vainly regretted ; he paid the penalty 
with the loss of his life. With him were slain 
twenty-six out of his eighty-six officers, among 
them Sir Peter Halket ; and thirty-seven were 
wounded including Col. Gage and other field 
officers. Gage afterwards figured as a general in 
the British army, fighting against the colonists. 
Braddock was rash, and courted every danger. 
Shirley his secretary was shot dead and both his 
English aides were disabled. The battle was 
a rout. The regulars were panic striken and fled, 
even fired upon the provincials, mistaking them 
in the smoke for the enemy. Gen. Braddock 
had been in the British service for more than 
thirty years and had participated in many severe 
engagements under the Duke of Cumberland. 
Although a brave soldier, he was rash and impet- 
uous and tyrannical. 







■•j^- *?-*<<-*'' ' 



*#* 



MAJOR GENL. EDWARD BRADDOCK. 



Braddock had five horses disabled under him. At last, a bullet entered his right 
side and he fell mortally wounded. He was with difficulty brought off the field and 
borne along in the train of the fugitives. All the first day he was silent, but at night 
he roused himself to say — "who would have thought it". Dunbar was now in com- 
mand. On the 1 2th of July he destroyed the remaining artillery, a.nd burned public 
stores and the heavy baggage to the value of a hundred thousand pounds sterling, 
pleading in excuse, that he had the orders for so doing of the dying general. In mid- 
summer he evacuated Fort Cumberland and then hurried to Philadelphia for winter 
quarters. At night Braddock roused again to say, "we shall know the next time 
better how to manage them," and died. His grave was made near Fort Necessity. 
Thus ended the famous expedition of 1755 against the French and Indians and the 
first days of military glory in Alexandria. 

Since the occurrence of the events we have narrated, hardly a century and a half 
has passed, but the circumstances seem dim to us now and very remote ; for the succeed- 
ing years have wrougut so many changes for the colonies and the states. They are 
not so distant after all when measured by the years of a long life time. 

The straggling hamlet of Belle Haven, then a frontier post in the midst of perils and 
alarms from Indian incursions, has grown to be a pretentious town, and the wave ot 
civilization has rolled westward two thousand miles beyond it and encompassed with 
its blessings, the realms of a continent. It presents to day but few traces of the ex- 
citing circumstances of those primeval times. The old council house where the colon- 
ial governors deliberated, still remains ; and here and there, other land marks are 
pointed out to revive memories and traditions, a hipped roofed house, moss grown, with 
quaint gables, an outside chimney and dormer windows. Now and then in digging in 
the streets, a crown stamped button from a red coat of one of Braddock's regulars, or 
a coin with the superscription. "Brittania and Georgius 2d," or a rusted flint lock 



12 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

are unearthed, which to the fanciful gazer brings up whole chapters of history of the long 
vanished years and fan into glowing embers their smouldering remains. 

Few great battles were fought in the vicinity of Washington during the civil war, 
but this neighborhood was well peopled with soldiers, who were kept constantly on the 
alert, for raids, and skirmishes: and small actions were mat'ers of frequent occurrence. 
The most significant and the bloodiest fight of all was the first Bull Run battle, which 
was fought about twenty-one miles from the city. The second fight, known also as 
the battle of Bull Run, was fought at Manassas, within a few miles of the first battle. 

During the early part of the war the citizens of Washington were well acquainted 
with the sounds of the conflict; and the fear of invasion was constantly in the minds 
of all. One of the earliest skirmishes that took place in this immediate vicinity was 
that at Edwards' Ferry June 18, i86r, and again October 4, and October 21 and 22, 
in the same year, there were actions at that place. An unimportant skirmish took 
place at Seneca Mills, June 14 and 15, 1S61, and July 7 of that year there were skir- 
mishes at Rockville and Great Falls. A few days later, in July, the forces of the two 
armies met at Silver Spring in a brief engagement. 

Early in May, 1861, Alexandria was evacuated by the confederate forces and later 
in the month the Union army moved into Virginia and occupied Arlington Heights 
and Alexandria, capturing Captain Ball of the confederate army and his cavalry troop 
of thirty-five men. Colonel E. E. Ellsworth, commanding the nth New York, known 
as the 1st Fire Zouaves of New York city, was shot and killed in Alexandria. 

August 18th, 1S61, there was a skirmish at Pohick Church, Va., about twelve miles 
from Alexandria, and later in the month there were skirmishes at Ball's Cross Roads 
and Baily's Comers. The first day of August there was a skirmish at Munson's Hill. 
Fairfax Court House, which is about seventeen miles from Washington, was the scene 
of an engagement June 1, 1861, when a company of regular cavalry cut through the 
confederate lines. Six Union soldiers were killed and twenty confederates. In the 
middle of July this town was occupied by the Union forces, under General McDowell, 
and this inaugurated the Bull Run campaign, which ended in the first battle by that 
name, which was fought July 21, 1861. 

Throughout the rest of the war there was hardly a month in which some engagement 
did not occur on Virginia soil within twenty miles of Alexandria. The contederates 
were making constant efforts to drive back the pickets thrown out by the Union forces 
and to force inward the line of defences. There were engagements at Dranesville, 
Leesburg, Burke's Station and Dumfries. 

Just as Richmond was the object of a general campaign on the part of the Union 
army, so Washington was the goal toward which flying columns of southern forces 
were constantly being thrown. The nearest approach to an actual invasion of the 
capital occurred July 10, 1864, when Fort Reno and Fort Stevens, a few miles north 
of the city, were attacked by a part of Gen. Jubal A. Early's raiding army. A fight 
took place at Fort Stevens on the 7th street roul, and after a sharp struggle the con- 
federates were driven back and the threatened capture of Washington was averted. 
The fighting on this occasion covered three days, although at no time did the engage- 
ment amount to a fixed battle. Forty Union soldiers were killed in the various en- 
counters on that occasion. 

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. 

Seven miles below the National Capital, on the opposite shore of the Potomac River, 
stands the city of Alexandria, with a population of eighteen thousand and a history 
datin 1 the year 17S4, when Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Lawrence Wishington, and 

their associates, as incorporators by the authority of the General Assembly of Virginia, 
organized the beginning of its municipal government. Fifty years before that time 
l single white man had permanent residence there, and only a few years before, 
I, the whole of the domain from Great Hunting Creek to the falls of the Potomac, 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



13 




THE FAIRFAX HOUSE. 
COR. CAMERON AND ST. ASAPH STS. 



extending miles inland and embracing six thou- 
sand acres, had been purchased by John Alexan- 
der in 1699 ofCapt. Robert Howsen, for 6600 
hogsheads of tobacco. Howsen had secured his 
right to it by a Royal Patent granted to him in 
1688 by Governor Berkeley for having brought 
to Virginia a certain number of emigrants. The 
nucleus of the town, was first formed somewhere 
near the site of the gas works, and was called 
Belle Haven. 

The streets of this old town cross each other 
regulary at right angles and some of them are 
adorned by many fine residences, among which 
are types in plenty of the old Colonial days. 
In these houses are still reserved, much old fur- 
niture, and many valuable portraits of the celeb- 
rities of the Colonial days. Washington street, 
laid out by General Washington, is one hundred 
fc ^Khi feet in width. King street through which the 

' : - iSpS road passes for a mile in its course, is the main 

'-^ I and business thoroughfare. A number of streets 

such as Royal, King, Prince, Duke, Queen and 
Princess still savor of the old time spirit of roy- 
alty when Virginia was under Kingly rule. 

Pitt and Wilkes and St. Asaph streets will 
remind one of the kindly offices of friends 
in Great Britain during the colonial contest. 

The city fron s at a convenient elevation on the river where the depth will admit of 
vessels drawing over twenty-five feet of water. Once its port was a very busy one, 
with a commerce extending to the West Indies, South America and Europe. Before 
the time of railroads the merchants of the place kept up an extensive trade in wheat 
and other farm commodities, brought over the turnpikes by the caravans of white 
sheet topped wagons from the rich lands of the Shenandoah and adjoining regions. 

The old town's historical associations are of surpassing interest to every lover of the 
lore of Colonial times. No locality in the thirteen original provinces was more inti- 
mately connected with the beginnings ard subsequent development of the spirit and 
feeling which led to the declaration of American Independence. It was indeed a hot 

bed of patriotism all through 
the long struggle. Her people 
were early imbued with the spirit 
of resistance to the oppressive 
measures of Great Britian and 
no town in all the colonies re- 
sponded more promptly and 
continually for troops and re- 
sources, through the contest. 
"Here it was" says a cotempo- 
rary English traveler "that Geo. 
Washington amid the plaudits 
of the inhabitants first stepped 
forth as the patron of sedition 
and revolt and subscribed fifty 
pounds for the support of hostili- 
ties." The town was then about 
twentv-five years old and its 
population about five thou , 




1 HE I.IOVD HOUSE. 
COR WASHINGTON AM' QUREN STS. 



14 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



Through the years of the continental strife and general trouble incident to it, a 
everywhere else, the industries of the town were greatly depressed, but prosperity re- 
turned with the dawn of peace. The wagon trains again came down with their freights 
from the far frontiers, and commerce again unfurled her sails as in the vears agone. 
In 1S14, the population was nearly 8000. In 1S16, two years after the capitulation to 















CHRIST CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA, VA. 

and plunder by Admiral Gordon, commander of the British fleet up the Potomac, the 
arrivals of sails at its port were, nineteen ships, forty-two brigs, fifty-two schooners 
from foreign ports and three hundred and twenty-two coastwise entries. 

Had the conditions of trade and traffic and the various local economic industries 
which then existed continued unchanged through the succeedirg years, Alexandria to- 
'day could doubtless show a population double and treble that which it now claims. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



15 



The construction of the Potomac Canal and the laying of the three several railways, 
the Baltimore and Ohio, with its branch to Winchester, the Midland and the Loudoun 
and Hampshire, ended the old time wagon industries over the mountains and diverted 
most of the wonted trade to other points. 

Here in the spring of 1755 met the Colonial Governors, Dinwiddie of Virginia, 
Shirley of Massachusetts, De Lancy of New York, Morris of Pennsylvania, Sharpe of 
Maryland and Dobbs of North Carolina, to arrange plans for the prosecution of the 
French and Indian wai on the Ohio river. This meeting of the colonial governors 
might be called the second congress in America. That of the council at Albany in 
1747, the first. 

Christ Church, built in 1767 on Washington street near to King with its unaltered 
pew of George Washington will bring back forcibly the plainer days when the great 
hero mingled so often in religious service with his neighbors and friends of old Fairfax. 




MARSHALL HOUSE. 



The spacious rooms of the Old City Hotel on Royal street between King and Cam- 
eron will call up many festive scenes when the same revered personage was wont to 
lay aside his dignity for the time and trip gaily through the mazes of the dance, with 
fair women and brave men; here also, he had his headquarters when he visited Alexan- 
dria, and here in ^99 he gave his last military order to the Alexandria volunteers. 

The Marshall House on King street above Royal, will make fresh the tragic circum- 
stances of the killing of Col. Ellsworth of the New York Zouaves, May 24th, 1S61. 
That was the first blood shed in Virginia during the war. The following tragic ac- 
count of the occurrence is from the Alexandria Gazette: 

"Probably no survivor of the Army of the Potomac visits Alexandria without inquir- 
ing for the Marshall House. It became famous in history in the early days of the late 
war, and has so remained ever since. It was in this building that one of the bloodiest 
tragedies of the war was enacted, in which two men met their death in a terrible en- 
counter. 

"The spring of 1861 found Alexandria, as well as many other Southern cities, in a 
ferment of excitement. The place was held by a few companies of Confederate 
soldiers, who flaunted the stars and bars literally within sight of the Capitol and under 
the gunsof the Federal steamer "Pawnee," which was anchored off the city at the time. 




SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

One beautiful Saturday afternoon, a few weeks before 
the lamentable tragedy which concentrated the atten- 
tion of the country on Alexandria, James Jackson, who 
was the lessee of the Marshall House, a sort of tavern 
more than a hotel, situated on the southeast corner 
of King and Pitt streets, flung to the breeze, from 
the roof of that building, a large-sized Confederate 
flag, with the defiant assertion that the man who 
lowered it would do so over his dead body. The oc- 
casion was one of some rejoicing ami enthusiasm among 
those who had cast their fortunes with the Confederacy, 
or who sympathized with the disunion movement. 

"A few days before the capture of Alexandria, 
President Lincoln and his Cabinet, from some elevat- 
ed spot in Washington, with field glasses, viewed the 
objectionable flag, and in the course of the conversation 
that foilowed, Mr. Lincoln remarked that the ensign 
of treason would not remain there long; nor did it, 
as on the night of Thursday. May 23, 1861, a silent 
move was made on this defiant city, which'resulted in 
ELMERE- Ellsworth. its capture and the stampede cf its Confederate garri- 
son to Manassas Junction on the Orange and Alexandria (now Virginia Midland) 
Railroad, about twenty-seven miles distant. 

"The plans of the Federal troops, through some miscarriage, proved ineffectual so far 
as capturing the rebel soldiers was concerned, and only a small company was netted. 
The Federal troops were sent in three directions when the moveon the city was made — 
some by way of Chain Bridge above Georgetown, others via the Long Bridge, where 
trains now pass from Washington into Virginia, and the remainder by water. The 
Confederate pickets around the wharves and on the outskirts of the city gave the alarm 
in time to allow a safe retreat, and when Uncle Sam's soldiers entered the city, those of 
the Confederacy were well on their way south. 

"The New York Fire Zouaves were among those who reached Alexandria by water. 
N 1 doubt their young and patriotic, though ill-starred colonel had viewed the obnox- 
ious flu,' from a distance as well as Mr. Lincoln, and had longed for the opportunity of 

lowering it. The Marshall House is situated 
five blocks in a westerly direction from the 
|^ wharf where the Zouaves landed. L was very 

early in the morning when Colonel Ellsworth, 
with a small squad of his men, proceeded up 
the street of Alexandria, little dreaming that 
in less than half an hour's time his lifeless body 
was to be borne over the same street to the 
boat from which he had just landed. Cameron 
street, a commercial thoroughfare, up which he 
wended his way, was comparatively deserted. 
But few people were moving, the bulk of the 
city's inhabitants being asleep. The inmates 
of the Marshall House were still in the arms of 
Morpheus, oblivious to the fact that the rebels 
had vanished before the defenders of the Union, 
while the flig of the Confederacy was hanging 
limp in the absence of any breeze. The ill- 
fated Colonel Ellsworth soon reached the fatal 
tavern and with his half-dozen followers ob- 
tained an entrance. Meeting with no opposi- 
tion, and not dreaming for a moment they 





THE ELLSWORTH TRAGEDY. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 17 

would encounter any resistance in the face of the fact that the city-had been captured, 
the colonel proceeded immediately to the roof for the purpose of taking possession of 
the coveted flag. 

"After passing through the front door, a staircase was encountered which ran spiral- 
ly, the first turn leading to the second floor, the third to the next floor, and the fourth 
to the garret and roof. The colonel and his men, before they reached the roof, met a 
man in his night clothes coming out of one of the rooms, of whom they inquired for the 
proprietor. The man replied that he was a boarder himself, and knew nothing of the 
whereabouts of the proprietor. It has since been suggested that the unknown individ- 
ual was Jackson himself. It took the Zouaves but a few minutes to lower the flag and 
detach it from the pole which protruded from the trap-door, and Colonel Ellsworth 
having taken it in charge, began his descent. About half-way down the flight of stairs 
leading from the garret, he saw Jackson, but partially dressed, emerge from one of the 
rooms on the landing armed with a double-barrelled gun. Ellsworth, little dreaming 
of the bellicose nature of the man with whom he had to deal, pleasantly remarked to 
him, "I've gotten a prize." Jackson made some defiant retort, and, before any one 
could divine his intention, raised his gun and discharged it at the colonel. An extra- 
ordinary charge of buckshot had been placed in the weapon, and a hole was torn in 
the unfortunate Ellsworth's breast large enough in which to place one's fist. Colonel 
Ellsworth, it is said by some, fell without a groan, though others have asserted that he 
gave vent to an audible sigh. In his descent he fell on his face on the landing, and 
while his life's blood was flowing his followers were avenging his death. The weapon 
Jackson used was an ordinary double-barrelled shotgun, and after killing Ellsworth he 
took aim at those who were with him, but before he could pull the trigger the second 
time the gun was knocked upward by the Zouaves and the charge entered the door frame. 
Francis E. Brownell, one of the squad,' then sent a bullet crashing into Jackson's head 
and as he fell, sword bayonets were thrust through him. Jackson's body was forced 
down the flight of stairs leading to the second floor, and fell on the landing. The body 
of Ellsworth was subsequently raised by those who had accompanied him into the fatal 
building, covered with an American flag, and silently and sorrowfully borne to the boat 
from which he had a short time before landed. 

"Considering the terrible tragedy which had been enacted, the day proved a remark- 
ably quiet one, Jackson's body was soon picked up by his friends, washed, and placed 
in a coffin, and it lay in state throughout day and night. 

"The scene of the tragedy was visited by numbers during the day. The landing up- 
on which Jackson fell and where he had writhed in death agony presented a sickening 
sight. Blood filled a space about two yards square, and it was necessary to go on tip- 
toe to avoid walking in it. There was a pool of blood about a foot square where Ells- 
worth had fallen. 

"Colonel Farnham succeeded Ellsworth in command of the Zouaves. On the 21st of 
July following, the regiment participated in what proved to the Federal army the in- 
glorious battle of Bull Run. The Zouaves and the famous Black Horse Cavalry en- 
gaged in hand-to-hand encounter throughout the, eventful day, with terrible carnage to 
both, daring which Colonel Farnham was struck on the ear by a piece of shell, from the 
effects of which he died a few weeks later. In the stampede from the fatal field the 
Zouaves suffered greatly, and the Monday following, the survivors straggled into Alex- 
andria in a bedraggled, dejected, condition, many of their comrades being then stark 
and stiff on the bloody field of Bull Run. A cold rain had set in, and no provision 
had been made for their reception, and they were on the verge of suffering. It was in 
this emergency that numbers of the prominent people of Alexandria, though southern 
sympathizers, exhibited a christian spirit which the good-natured Zouaves were not slow 
to appreciate. Houses were opened and entertainment afforded many of them and 
their straggling confreresby p.mies whose political predilections where hostile to the prin- 
ciples for which the vanquished had fought. 

"The Zouaves lingered about Alexandria for a few months, and the term of their 
enlistment having expired, they w^re mustered out of service. 

At bottom of page 12 read 1748 for 1784 Near top of page 13 for reserved read preserved. 



18 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



"Jackson, the destroyer of Colonel Ellsworth, was a typical Southerner. Though 
brave and fearless, his politcal predilections had run riot with his judgment, and, 
rather than let the rash threat of protecting his flag come to naught, preferred sacri- 
ficing his life. There is little to be said in palliation of his act save that he lived at a 
time when men's blood had reached the fever-heat of excitement, and when rashness 
was occasionally exhibited by the champions of both sides. 

"The killing of Ellsworth produced the greatest sorrow as well as exasperation in the 
North, and Alexandria was immediately beseiged by parties from a distance, anxious to 
inspect the scene of the tragedy. A piece of oil-cloth on the landing on which the col- 
onel fell was cut up and carried away by relic hunters. The flooring subsequently met 
the same fate, and finally the balusters were cut away, piece by piece, and carried 
North. For several years the old Marshall House was looked upon as a sad memento 
of war times by soldiers of both sides — by the Federals as a place where a brave and 
promising young officer laid down his life at the beginning of the four-years conflict, 
and by the Confederates as the spot where a determined sympathizer of their cause 
showed a courage in the face of inevitable death equalled by few on either side. 

"About twenty years ago, on a cold, weird night, the Marshall House was found 
to be on fire, and, despite the exertions of the fire department, but little more than the 
bare walls were left standing. Upon being rebuilt, it ceased to be a house of enter- 
tainment and the new building is used for other purposes." 

There is more at Alexandria to call up the memory of Washington than in any other 
place in our country except that of Mount Vernon. Alexandria was, emphatically, his 
own town. It was his post-office, his voting and market-place. It was the meeting- 
place of the lodge of Freemasons to which he belonged. He was a member of its cor- 
poration council, and owned property within its limits. He was the commander of 
its local militia, and was a member of its volunteer fire company. He slept in the 
house of many of its leading citizens, and danced the minuet with its fairest daughters. 
He was a vestryman of the parish, and was a regular attendant of Christ Church, where 
his pew is kept undisturbed to this day. 

This farthing, struck in the London 
mint in the year 1752, when George the 
Second was reigning monarch was doubt- 
less brought over the sea by one of Brad- 
dock's soldiers three years later and put 
into circulation in the new born hamlet 
of Belle Haven. From its worn appear- 
ance it must have been kept nimbly going 
from pocket to pocket and the story of 
its wanderings if we could read it now would be a very entertaining one. Mayhap it 
helped to pay for many a mug of cider or grog, or dinner, while the troops were waiting 
for their long march through the wilderness. 

THE OLD TAVERN. 

In the ball room of the city hall the birth-night balls, in honor of the birthday of the 
king and queen, were given before the revolution, when Gen. George Washington 
was a very young man and danced at them with no thought of disloyalty. From the 
court yard went all the coaches for Georgetown, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, 
before the city of Washington was anything but swamp and forests, and not even laid - 
out, and to Williamsburg, Richmond, Charleston and New Orleans, as soon as a 
regular road was opened through the wilderness. In those days Alexandria was con- 
sidered a central place of importance to which the fashions were sent from Philadelphia. 
Later, when the British came to help fight the French and Indians, when General 
Braddock had his headquarters, and held his council of war at the Carlyle House on 
the opposite side of the market, some of his officers, and many people of distinction* 
were ghd to stay at the City Hotel, then known as Claggett's or Gadsby's Tavern. 
Later still, long afterwards in fact, when Gen. Lafayette was entertained by the 




OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



19 



Masonic Lodge, "he alighted from his carriage at the door of the City Hotel at 
3 o'clock," dined at the banquet in the ball room, and lodged there during the 
festivities incident to his visit. 

VISIT OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 

The visit of General Lafayette to Alexandria is one of the green spots in the city's 

history. There are some now living who remem- 
ber the occasion ; others who have a dim recol- 
lection of it when, as little children, they toddled 
along, having hold of their parents' hands. This 
was in the year 1824, the city at that time put 
on a holiday attire, and the enthusiasm animat- 
ed all from the youngest to the oldest. 

At that time hundreds of Alexandrians could 
be found who had fought in the seven years' con- 
flict for independence. To them the name of 
Lafayette was sacred, and many who participat- 
ed in the honors conferred upon the illustrious 
Frenchman had been encouraged by his presence 
and valor on the field of battle. 

It is unnecessary to describe all the details of 
his reception and entertainment while here. Let 
it suffice when it is said that almost every one in 
the community turned out and vied in doing 
honor to him who when ihe infant republic most 
needed help, left his own land and cast his fortune 
with us, and lived to see the independence of a" 
country declared which has grown and prosper- 
ed ever since. 

the lafayette house. The house where Lafayette was entertain ed 

while in Alexandria is one of the most promi- 
nent in the city. It is situated on the southwest corner of St. Asaph and Duke 
streets. Such are a few of the many points of historic interest which the old town pos- 
sesses for the curious wayfarer within its borders. 

THE CARLYLE HOUSE. 

Few of all the colonial buildings of Virginia left standing, have more interesting his- 
torical associations than the Old Car- 
lyle Mansion which forms a portion 
of the Braddock Hotel on North Fair- 
fax street. It was built by John Car- 
1 vie in 1745, when the town was in its 
infancy and surrounded by forests. 
At that time the waves of the Poto- 
mac washed close to the walls of the 
building, but by subsequent levellings 
and fillings of the immediate hill slopes 
for the city's improvements, they have 
receded to the distance of several hun- 
dred yards. 

The structure of cut stone and 
massive walls, thanks to the reveren- 

al care of generations of owners is 
still in a good state of preservation. 

n the colonial days when it stood a- 
lone it must have presented a stately 
appearance with its wide porch on the carlyle house. — front view. 





20 



POME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



west and its spacious veranda on the east, commanding an otensive view of the river 
and the heights of the Maryland shore beyond. The lower apartments are wainscoted 
to the ceding and ornamented with carved work in oak. 

The builder of the Mansion House with a commendable reverence for the associa- 
tions of the older days, which witnessed the founding of the town, while he had to 




■**,** MM MmW--' - 



S&tfy\i C "v 




CARLYLE HOUSE, REAR VIEW . 

obstruct the building on two sides would not allow it to be altered nor hidden, and it 
now stands apart with its lower floors, ^council chamTjer and all, just as the council left 
it in 1755. ^^ e personages who composed the council were; Gen. Edward Braddock, 



*The council house where the governors and r : of the king deliberated in secret sessions, is 

liu little changed. In mas 1 ured well through the long year?. In its untenanted 

cket chirps and the spider fa web. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 21 

Commodore Keppel ; and the colonial governors: Shirlev of Massachusetts, De Lancey 
of New York; Morris of Pennsylvania, Sharpe of Maryland, Dinwiddie of Virginia, 
Dobbs of North Carolina, General St. Clair and Benjamin Franklin. They met to 
provide against the alarming emergencies from the encroachments of the French and 
Indians on the western frontiers. 

Alexandria is connected with other towns and cities by the Southern Railway, the 
Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio, the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Norfolk 
and Western railway lines : and Steamers ply regularly to Baltimore, Norfolk and other 
points. Thirty-nine trains of the Washington and Mount Vernon railway pass through 
the city daily. Fairfax Court House is fourteen miles distant, Manassas twenty-seven, 
Winchester ninety, Fredericksburg fifty miles, Richmond one hundred and ten miles 
and Norfolk two hundred and ten miles. 

The city and county of Alexandria were included in that portion of the District of 
Columbia ceded in 179T by the State of Virginia to the general government. 

The District was ten miles square and contained 100 square miles. The square lay 
diagonally, each angle facing one of the cardinal points of the compass. In 1846, all 
that portion of the District consisting of about 36 square miles lying on the west bank 
of the Potomac was ceded back to Virginia. 

Before the final establishment of the seat of government on the Potomac, offers of 
land and money for that purpose were made, by the inhabitants of Trenton, Lancaster, 
Wright's Ferry, York, Carlisle, Harrisburg, Reading, Germantown, Baltimore, George- 
town and Williamsburg, and the question of a choice of location was the source of long 
and bitter contentions until at last settled in accordance mainly with the wishes of 
Gen. Washington. 

Alexandria was the county seat of Fairfax County from 1754 to rSoo. About this 
time the District of Columbia was formed and Alexandria then became the seat of the 
new county of Alexandria. At the same time the county seat of Fairfax was establish- 
ed at its present location. 

"In Alexandria in 1785 was held a convention of delegates from Virginia and 
Maryland to consider questions relating to the navigation of the Potomac and the im- 
port duties thereof. This meeting led to demands from Pennsylvania and Delaware 
which resulted in an adjournment until September to Annapolis, Md., where there 
were present, delegates from five States, who, after diligent conference, adjourned to 
meet representatives of all the thirteen States in Philadelphia, which body framed the 
Constitution of the United States. It can therefore be said that the American Union 
owes its birth to Alexandria." 

Though the former commercial glory of the old town ot Alexandria has waned and 
well nigh disappeared before the newer conditions of trade and traffic — though no 
square rigged vessels lie now a days in her docks, discharging their cargoes of sugar, 
molasses and other tropical productions from Barbadoes, Jamaica, Trinidad, Santa Cruz 
and other islands of the Carribean Sea as in the years long gone — though the rumble of 
the long and incessant wagon trains from the west, which once crowded her streets and 
made every class of its citizens prosperous, has been silenced by the swifter transit of 
the railway train, still, (here is a prestige remaining for it which the passing of the de- 
cades cannot destroy^ 1 It will always be one of the places of the Old Dominion state 
to attract pilgrimages from lands afar, on account of its interesting historic associations ; 
and doubtless, it will become the pleasant abiding place for large accessions of people, 
who love the quiet, and whose business or social inclinations will keep them close to 
the National Capital. It will not lose its mature and leisurely ways. Its old and sub- 
stantial houses will be preserved with pious care to afford to coming generations of 
patriots fond glimpses of the vanished past, when an infant people threw off the tram- 
mels o r kingly power, and merged into a life of independence. 

O town of old with changeless life, Though leaves drop on dismantel'd way — 

With graves and memories dear, Though quaint old houses fall, 

Thy ways bear impress all of strife, Still, is brave struggle of thy day 

But ne'er with line of fear I Carved on each massive wall. 



22 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



O day of pride, O day of power 

When ships at anchor lay. 
And wharves bedeck'd wiih princely dower 

Loomed up in grand array ; 



When fruitful West sued at thy doors 
And East held out its hands, 

And the gray piers on thy fair shores 
Were gates to many lands ; 



At Jones' Point just before crossing Great Hunting Creek, a wide estuary of the Po- 
tomac, stands the Light House which marks the spot where was planted the initial 
stone of the boundaries of the district, which was ten miles square. 




THE LIGHT HOUSE. 
Under which is Buried the 'Initial Jurisdiction Stone" of Dist. of Columbia 



ONE OF THE FORTY "JURISDICTION 
STONES" OF THE DISTRICT LINES. 



The District of Columbia, was authorized by Congress in 1790. The survey of its 
boundaries was made in 1 791 . After the completion of the survey the line was cleared 
of trees to the width of twenty feet on each side of the line. Along this forty foot lane 
through the woods and over the hills and valleys, stone monuments forty in all were 
set exactly one mile apart. They were of free stone, four feet in length, two feet in 
the earth and two feet above, and on each one of them was the inscription — "jurisdic- 
tion of the United States." After the lapse of a little more than a century, all but 
two of these monuments remain in place, but in various states of preservation. 

At Jones' Point was also the site of Old Fort Columbia, a fortification of wood and 
earthwork, mounting some heavy guns, among them the cannon left by Braddock's 
army in 1755 as too cumbrous to transport over the mountains. This fort whs the first 
attempt by the government to guard the river approaches to the National Capital. It 
was not dismantled until after the trouble with France in 1798-9. The heavy stones 
that made the battery, still lie at the end of the point, and some of the guns which 
made its armament are stuck up as posts at street corners along the river front. Just 
before this fort was demolished — for it was in 1794 only a ruin — Congress determined 
to build another one on the Potomac. 

John Vermonnet was appointed by Gen. Knox, Secretary of War, in May, 1*794, to 
take control and direction of the new fort, etc., to be built upon the Potomac river. 
General Washington selected the site for the new fort, a riverside knoll nearly opposite 
Mount Vernon, and part of the old manor of Warburton, in Maryland. Charles Dig- 
ges h:u\ purchased the land before 1740, and naming it a manor, affected lordly manners. 
He had his river barge built like a Venetian gondola, and it was manned with negro 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



23 



slaves wearing the costumes of gondoliers. His daughter, Jane Digges, married Col. 
John Fitzgerald, one of Washington's aides in the Revolution, afterwards Mayor of 
Alexandria. The land was bought of Thomas A. Digges in 1808 for $3,000, and the 
new fort was begun in 1809. 

Battery Rogers, some years since dismantled, was during the civil war a strong earth- 
work a few hundred yards above the Point with an armament ot heavy guns. 

As you cross Great Hunting Creek, to the left on the Maryland heights is seen Fort 




Xfi o 
Q 55 

o 

o 



o 

X 
55 « 

£ o 

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s > 

>° 



Foote, and Rosier's Bluff; and further down, the expanse of Broad Bay, uniting with 
the Potomac. 

To the right, looking from the railway bridge over Hunting Creek, stretches a scope 
of country pleasingly diversified by gently sloping hills and vales, and dotted with 
hamlet and farm-houses. Prominent among the many objects of the landscape is the 



24 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



tall spire of the Episcopal Theological Seminary, which, if it could speak of the transac- 
tions of some of the years of the past, could tell startling stories of the presence of 
mustering armies. Around it in almost every direction, at the beginning of the civil 
strife, the plains and hill slopes were white with the tents of the gathered regiments, 
brigades, and divisions of Union soldiers. Everywhere over the suddenly populated 
region was heard the drum's wild beats, the fife's shrill notes, the bugle's echoing calls. 
The numerous remains of their entrenchments, earthworks, and other defences still 
prominent at every turn for miles, attest with melancholy certainty the great prepara- 
tions which were then made by them for the impending conflict, which ere long broke 
with such terrific force within our borders. Union forts frowned from every salient 
point of those now so quiet and peaceful hills, and a hundred flagstaffs unfurled over 

all, their starry flags to the passing winds. 
The locality is one naturally possessing a 
saddening interest to the tourist. Every 
year it is visited by numbers of the surviv- 
ing veterans who figured in the scenes of 
the stirring times of forty years ago. 

The grass grows green on every hill 
Where circling ramparts frown' d. 

Forgotten all through lapse of time , 
Is every martial sound. 

The sword is resting on the wall 

Of lowly home or princely hall. 

The brave corn lifts in regiments, 
Ten thousand sabers in the sun ; 

The ricks replace the battle-tents, 
The bannered tassels toss and run. 

The neighing steed, the bugle's blast — 

These be the stories of the past. 

The earth has healed her wounded breast, 
The cannon plow the fields no more ; 

The heroes rest : O let them rest 
In peace along the peaceful shores ; 

They fought for peace, for peace they fell : 
ONLY A MEMORY. Tlle y slee P in P eace and al1 is we,L 

Just beyond the Seminary, in full sight up the valley, are the picketing grounds which 
long divided the two armies; and near by is Bailey's Cross Roads, where was man- 
oeuvred by the Union forces, in November, 1S61, in the presence of President Lincoln 
preparatory to the peninsula campaign, one of the grandest military reviews of any 
country or time. Through these camping and drilling grounds, and far on beyond, 
may still be traced the course of the old military road, laid out through the then dense 
wilderness a hundred years previous, by which a portion of Braddock's army under 
General Halket marched on their disastrous expedition. 

Halt way between the Seminary and the railway bridge, is Cameron Ford where 
Hunting Creek is crossed by the Old King's Highway from Williamsburg, the Ancient 
Capital of Virginia, to the Shenandoah River. Over this highway General Sherman at 
the close of the Civil War led his army back to the National Capital on their return 
from their march from "Atlanta to the Sea." Over this same highway too, Washing- 
ton always passed when he rode into Alexandria on horseback or in his coach. 

A short distance above the Electric Railway is the new iron bridge of the turnpike 
to Accotink eight miles below. On Seminary Heights are the remains of Fort Worth 
constructed by Gen. Kearney's first New Jersey brigade in 1861. It had an arma- 
ment of heavy and long range guns. Grouped around this fort in close proximity so 
as to command all the approaches to Alexandria were Forts Ellsworth, Farnsworth 
Willard, Weed, O'Rourke and Lyons. The last named, was on Mount Eagle and in- 
cluded within its works the home of Bryan, eighth Lord Fairfax whose title was confirm- 




OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 25 

ed to him by the English house of Lords in 1800. He was the son of William Fairfax 
of Belvoir, and was for two years a rector of Christ Church. Although he was an ar- 
dent royalist, the friendship between him and Washington always continued the same. 
Leaving the bridge at Great Hunting Creek the railway enters and passes through the 
lands of the "New Alexandria Land and River Improvement Company." Their town, 
projected a few years ago has not yet realized the sanguine hopes of its projectors but 
the new era of general prosperity, thrift and progress will doubtless bring to its admir- 
able situation for manufacturing industries all the needed possibilities for success. 




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From New Alexandria the road passes over an alluvial level, formerly covered with a 
dense forest, until it reaches the station which takes its name from the near by Dyke, 
constructed just afrer the Revolution by Dr. Augustus Smith of West Grove plantation 
of which it was a part, at a great expense, to make a large scope of meadow, by keep- 



26 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



ing out the waters. The undertaking proved successful but the embankments were cut 
a few years after by some malicious person, and were never repaired. 

Along the crests of the range of hills to the right of this level, in colonial times, 
stood the homesteads of the Johnstons, the Wests, and Emersons, prominent Virginia 
families. Some piles of bricks and stones and wasting springs aie all that are left to 
tell of them now. 




The arm of the river which passes near to the Dvke station lends attractions to the 
surrounding landscape, and its shaded nooks in the sultry days of summer offer pleasant 
retreats to the dwellers of the neighboring cities. From the Dyke the road rises by a 
slight deflection to the right through lands once a part of the Hollin Hall plantation 
of two thousand acres belonging to George Mason of Gunston. The site of the Old 
Mansion as pretentious as that of Gunston, is reached by a road from Belmont Station. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 27 

It is one mile distant. A quaint, long, rambling structure known in the neighborhood 
as the Spinning House, still stands. In it in generations gone was done all the spin- 
ning and weaving for the many occupants of the great plantation. This plantation ad- 
joined that of Mount Vernon between which was a boundary line of "double ditching." 
It was a part of a large scope of land of seven thousand acres patented by George Ma- 
son before the founding of Alexandria. Thomson Mason a son of George the patriot, 
and author of the Bill of Rights and Constitution of Virginia, built and resided in the 
mansion after the close of the revolution. The foundation of the walls may still be 
traced with exactness, showing the building to have been large and spacious ; and the 
surrounding grounds indicate well arranged lawns, terraces and approaches in keeping 
with a pretentious manorial dwelling. It was destroyed by fire about 1S24. 

The situation had been well chosen for a home. It was high and airy and command- 
ed a charming landscape of forests and hills and stretches of miles in extent ; and 
copious springs gushed near by, from the hill slopes for thirsting man and beast — 
springs which still flow as full and perennially as when the bond folks "toted" their 
crystal measures in the primal days. He named the homestead Hollin Hall after an 
old country seat of some of the Mason family in England. Gunston Hall where George 
Mason lived was ten miles down the river. 

Ere the lands of this estate had been impoverished by that continuous system of slave 
culture which demanded of them everything and returned to them nothing, they pro- 
duced large crops of tobacco, grain, wool and hemp. In the spinning house this wool 
and hemp was spun and woven into fine and coarse fabrics for the household needs 
and the hands of the plantation. The spinning wheel and the loom were kept going 
with little intermission through the whole year, for there was quite an army of the 
work people to clothe. Very near to the mansion along the valley on the east side 
coursed the Old Colonial road, now obliterated, which branched from the King's High- 
way heretofore described, near to "Gum Springs" and made then a continuous way 
for the southern travel even so far down as Savannah, until after the revolution, over 
the Potomac by Clifton Ferry and on to Philadelphia. The turnpike which now runs 
by the mansion site on the west side was not laid until after 1850. 

Like his father George, of Gunston, Thomas Mason was an earnest patriot and was 
prominent in the decisive measures which precipitated the opposition to British op- 
pression. He had signed the Virginia protest against the injustice of the Stamp Act, 
and when the war resulted he joined the army under his neighbor Washington and 
testified as a brave soldier, his sincerity in the colonial cause. In June, 17S1, his father 
writing to his brother George says of him, "your brother Thomson has lately returned 
from a tour of military duty upon the James river. He commanded a force in a close 
action, with coolness and intrepidity.' 

Belmont Station is on the highlands. Here the river flows close by, broadened by 
the confluence of the Broad Creek estuary on the Maryland side. This estuary in 1707 
was declared a port of entry for "all ships of commerce 1 ' and at its head was then laid 
out a town which for many years was a busy shipping place for the immense tobacco 
products of the neighboring plantations. An Episcopal Church was established there 
in 1694 in which building, service is still held. 

Beyond Belmont station a few hundred paces is the line of survey marking the upper 
boundary of the -'Old Mount Vernon Estate" of eight thousand acres, which in Wash- 
ington's time was divided into five main farms or plantations, and designated respect- 
ively, River, Dogue Run, Mansion House, Union, and Muddy Hole farms. River 
farm, which the railway strikes first, and formerly known as Clifton s Neck, was pur- 
chased in 1760 for the sum of three dollars per acre. It consisted of two thousand 
acres, but has been since divided and subdivided like all the other farms into smaller 
tracts, which are occupied by settlers chiefly from the Northern States of New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, New York and elsewhere, who have made many improvements upon 
them by clearing up the grounds, enriching the soil, planting orchards, and construct- 
ing fencing and comfortable dwellings. The surface of these highlands is. gently un- 
dulating, and consists of a great diversity of soils, which are remarkably easy of tillage 



3 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



and very susceptible of a high and profitable fertilization, and are particularly adapted 
to the production of all kinds of farm staples, fruits, and garden vegetables needed by 
the adjacent cities. The divisions lying immediately along the river afford situations 
for homes of surpassing beauty ; and while they are proverbially healthy, and are abund- 
antly supplied with perennial springs of pure soft water, for every domestic require- 
ment, the railway makes them suburban by giving them quick and easy transit to and 
from the National Capital .at all times of the year. 




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A short distance from Wellington Station to the left and in full view, stands on the 

river-bank the old Wellington Hou>e built by William Clifton previous to 1760. It 

wis occupied by Col. Tobias Lear, who for nearly fourteen years wis private and mili- 

.ecretary to the general, and private tutor to his adopted children, George ' W., 

Park C ust is, and his sister Nelly, and who was in 1S05 United States Commissioner to 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 29 

treat with the hostile powers of the Barbary States at the time of the memorable expedition 
of General Eaton. By a provision of Washington's will he was to be tenant of the 
house and premises rent free until his death. This was in consideration of his great 
services to him, especially during his presidency. He died in 1S16. Afterwards, the 
farm was occupied by two generations of the Washington family, Charles A., a grand- 
nephew, being the last, until 1859. Charles was a genial, jolly fellow, but not so well 
up in the arts of practical farming as his illustrious uncle. On one occasion, he went 
into town to have some ploughshares sharpened which were urgently needed to make 
ready his grounds tor wheat sowing, but falling in with some old cronies he was in- 
duced to make a month's visit to the "Springs ;" but it was all the same to Uncle Toby 
and the rest of the waiting "hands," for they had a long holiday, though the wheat 
crop went by default. In farming he was an experimentalist, though always disas- 
trously. He read in the Country Gentleman of the great profits of barley growing, and 
so resolved to try his hand also. One morning in spring, when the robin and bluebird 
were piping their jubilant songs, he had his "gang" ploughing a ten acre field. The 
barley was sown, and the harvest time came, and the grain »vas flailed out and loaded 
on a two-horse team for the Alexandria market. The hopeful proprietor mounted his 
saddle hoise and rode up, in advance, to dispose of his crop. But barley was an un- 
known quantity he found, on arriving at the store of his merchants ; but later, however 
he succeeded in bartering his grains to a brewer for a barrel of beer, which he sent 
home to his cellar. The tidings of the transaction soon spread among his many jolly 
town companions, and, slipping down the river by boat after nightfall to the Welling- 
ton House, they succeeded before morning, in drinking up the entire crop of barley. 

From Arcturus, the next station beyond, a smooth, winding avenue leads down a 
few hundred paces to Andalusia, one of the many desirable places on the Old Estate 
wnich the railway has made readily accessible to those who are in quest of situations for 
charming suburban homes. This point in our journey is best described in the sub- 
joined story of A Summer Outing. 

THE STORY OF AN OUTING AT ANDALUSIA, VA. 

Twelve miles from the National Capital, down the Potomac, on the Virginia shore, 
is a spot whose memories will be like holy benedictions to me through all the coming 
years of my life. I was needing rest, and there I found it in a sweet and quiet seclu- 
sion such as I never enjoyed before, — a rest which had no circumstances to disturb nor 
shadow to mar. 

This place Elysian is reached by the Mount Vernon Electric Railway. From Arc- 
turns Station, midway between Alexandria and the home of Washington, you wind by 
a hard, smooth avenue along green fields, and through orchards laden with ripe and 
ripening fruitage, till you are in the shadows of a hundred stateJy-oaks and walnuts, 
many of them of a century's growth. Here in the midst of these leafy sentinels is a 
home which in all its surroundings and influences, more nearly than any other, fills up 
the measure of my ideal dreamings. 

Andalusia is distant from the travelled highways, and before the coming of the elec- 
tric car was aterra incognita, with rarely a visitor, save of the surrounding neighborhood 
to invade its quiet borders. The passengers from the deck of the passing steamer de- 
scried it in the distance, showing like a gem in its setting of river and cool embower- 
ing trees, but it was only a glimpse of hidden beauties to be remembered and cherished 
or forgotten. Now, by rapid and easy transit many pilgrims find their way thither, 
although it is but a private home. Little picnic parties from the cities adjacent, through 
the c jurtesy of the proprietor, hie there through the summer days to spread their repasts 
under the shadowing boughs, and make merry on the inviting green sward. Artists 
come to sketch the delightful and varied views of its environs, the cycler to wheel over 
the smooth avenues, the angler to throw his line into the still river nooks, and the 
wearied, like myself, to seek the balm of rest. 

In this ideal home by the Potomac I found a welcome and a hospitality which re- 



30 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



called the many stories I had read, of entertainments in Virginia homes of the olden 
time. For tired nature there was no lack of sweet restorers. There were libraries, 
inviting to every range and department of knowledge. There was music to soothe 
and harmonize, pictures, and cabinets of curios to amuse, and a wilderness of flowers 
to please the eye. 

All to j swiftly passed the time, as I fondly tarried in the midst of so many allurements 
from the dull and perplexing routine of business in the city. Hours of the bright mid- 
summer days 1 watched from the vine-hung verandas of the "Old Mansion," the broad 




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river's' expanse before me. with its flitting shadows, its sails, and passing steamers. 
Sometimes it was a leisure stroll along the pebbly shore, or boating in the still waters 
that beguiled me, and sometin es il wis straying over the site of the old Indian town of 
Assoroeck, looking for arrow heads, javelin points, fragments of pottery, and other re- 
mains of the an< lent dwellers. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



31 



One serene evening, as the parting rays of the setting sun were fading beyond the 
hills I joined a boating party for an excursion to the opposite shores of "Maryland, 
my Maryland." A delightful ride over a stretch of two miles of the still waters 
brought us to the head of "Broad Bay," where we landed, and then walked in the 
twilight a short distance up the valley to an ancient chapel, erected in the time when 
all the surrounding region was a part of the realms which owned the rule and sway of 
the king of "Old England." Within the walls of this chapel, our Washington, Lord 




Fairfax, and many other noted men of that time were wont to worship. Many genera- 
tions of its congregations are lying under the crumbling stones of the briar grown 
graveyard, and as I pondered where so often had been read that last solemn ritual of 
"dust to dust," many a vision flitted before me, of happy bridals and solemn funeral 
trains of the "dead past" of the long ago. 

As we turned in pensive mood from the sacred place, the full moon was up and beam- 



32 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

ing brightly on the still waters of the grand old river to light us back on our homeward 
way. 

The sketch of my outing would be incomplete, if I failed to mention a sail down the 
river to Fort Washington and also a ride over the electric road to Mount Vernon. 
Reader, did you ever climb to the heights of the old fort ? If not it is worth a jour- 
ney to do so. Go thereon some fair midsummer day, and survey from its vine-covered 
battlements the broad and varied expanse outlying before them. In that expanse the 



■ 




eye may trace out the National Capital, with its towering dome and obelisk, sitting 
superbly enthroned in the mist and dimness of the far away hills to the north, and the 
grand old river flowing down in its seaward course through its setting of green slopes 
and plains and wooded crests, gives to all the view a charm and beauty not often sur- 
passed. 

A visit to the home and tomb of the immortal chieftain is surely an event to linger 
long in the memory of every patriot. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



But I am reaching the limits of the typos, and so must not tarry, otherwise the story 
of my outing with its round of varied pleasures and enjoyments would be a long one. 
To the friends who had kindly bidden and welcomed me to their hospitalities I said 
goodby, and with many regrets at parting turned homeward from the long to be re- 
membered scenes of Andalusia. 



O, homestead by the river side 
When rains of life are falling, 

I'll go in fancy to thy fold 
And hear the robin calling 

Hi? -sleepy mate at early dawn ; 
I'll watch the river flowing 



And see the sway of trees and flowers 
As winds round them are blowing, 

And tho' through splendid cascles 
In foreign lands I'll roam, 

O, may my heart be pure and true, 
As in the dear old home. 



From Andalusia to Mount Vernon the distance is three miles, with the intervening 
stations of Herbert's Spring, Snowden's, Hunter's and Riverside Park at Little Hunt- 
ing Creek, which make the occupants of numerous adjacent farms conveniently accessi- 
ble to this important line of travel. The creek divides the orginial River Farm of 
Washington's map from the Mansion House Farm, and one mile beyond, the road ter- 
minates at the gates of the Mount Vernon Mansion. 

BROAD CREEK-OLD CHURCH AND OLD HOUSES. 

Four miles below Alexandria, on the Maryland shore, and opposite to Andalusia, on 
the Virginia side, is the estuary or bay of Broad Creek. There Washington often went, 
as he tells us in his diary, with his friend and neighbor, Diggs, of Warburton Manor, 
to throw his line for the finny denizens of the still waters. At the head of this bay, where 
now only the light-draught scow boat can ascend the silt -filled channel, large schooners 
used to lie at their moorings and load with cargoes of tobacco, wheat, and corn for the 
foreign ports. It was a busy neighborhood then, when the odd and ancient looking 
houses, which have stood through the changes of one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
years were comparatively new, and the surrounding lands were fertile and produced 
abundantly all kinds of farm products. 




ST. JOHN S CHURCH, BROAD CREEK, MD. 

200 years old. 

There is much in this isolated localitv to interest the curious delver into the scenes 
and circumstances of the olden time. The weather-beaten tenements, so dilapidated 
and forlorn in appearance; the impoverished fields and the forsaken landing place 
with never a freight nor cargo to be loaded or discharged, will murmur to him, as he 

thoughtfully scans the desolation, inaudible stories of how the generations of toilers 



34 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



came and went — how they fretted out life's fitful fever, and were at last gathered from 
their labor of success or failure to the densely populated burial-place of the settlement. 

The creek meanders down from the far uplands in bright rivulets, touching' in its 
course the borders of many an old home whose mournful landmarks of falling tene- 
ment or blackened hearthstones 01 deserted springs are mute but eloquent reminders 
of the long faded years when those now impoverished fields in their primitive fertility 
yielded to the tobacco and maize planters their fifty and a hundred fold. 

More than two hundred years ago an Episcopal church was organized here by' A the 
first dwellers. The parish was at first known as Piscataway, afterwards King George's, 
and the Church of St. John's. The first house of worship was of logs and built in 
1694, rebuilt with bricks in 1722, and enlarged to its present dimensions in 1763, John 
Addison, William Hatton, William Hutchinson, William Tannhill, John Emmet, and 
John Smallwell were of its first vestry, and Rev. George Tubman its first rector. This 
church antedates all other Episcopal churches of the Potomac region of Maryland. 
The leading spirit in the organization of this church was Col. John Addison a member 
of the Governor's council and an uncle of the celebrated Joseph Addison. 

The burial place of the old kirk is densely peopled with the dead of departed congre- 
gations. Over most of the graves is a wilderness of tangled vines. Many of the stones 
are levelled and sunken nearly out of sight, with inscriptions worn and hard to deciph- 
er. Hundreds of graves have no stones at all, presumably of the earliest burials. A 
broad marble slab lies over the remains of Enoch Lyells killed in a duel, August 7, 
1805, with the following inscription : 

"Go, our dear son, obey the call of Heaven ; Yet, oh, what pen can paint the parents' woe? 

Thy sins were few — we trust they are forgiven. God only can punish the hand thai gave the blow." 




OLD HOUSE AT BROAD CREEK, MD. 
200 years old. 

The quarrel of the duelist had its origin in offensive remarks made at a ball in the 
village of Piscataway, and the duel took place at Johnson's Sprint,', on the Virginia 
shore. The young man who was killed and who had made the remarks was averse to 
the encounter, but was goaded cm to his death by his father and mother. His antag- 
onist was named Bowie, who afterwards fled to the new settlement of the southwest. 
To him belongs the unenviable reputation of originating the bowie knife. 

Tne hip-roofed house over two hundred years old still remains on the shore of Broad 

the wounded man was carried bv his friends to die. It .stands lonely and 

ghost like, scarred an I blackened by the mutations of time, a grim memorial not oily 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 35 

of the duel, but of the more prosperous days of the locality when square rigged vessels 
even, sailed from the now lonely and desolate place with cargoes of tobacco and other 
valuable freight of a fertile and productive region. 

Long after the event of the duel the old house was to all the negro population an ob- 
ject of aversion : and even to the present time stories handed down through the gen- 
erations, are told of strange lights which were seen flitting and hovering over the local- 
ity, on dark and dismal nights. These lights if seen as averred, may not have been 
due entirely to the distorted imagination of the ignorant negroes but as well to the 
phosphorescent exhalations from the decaying matter of the surrounding marshes. 

THE DOGUE I N Dl ANS-ASSAOM ECK. 

Alas for them ! their day is o'er, The plough is on their hunting-grounds, 

Their fires are out from shore to shore ; The pale man's axe rings thro' their woods, 

No more for them the wild deer bounds, — The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods. 

On the shores of the Mount Vernon estate, and far inland to the west, once roamed 
a numerous tribe of aborigines of the Algonquin race whose prowess was acknowledged 
and feared by all the surrounding tribes. The chief settlement or village of "Assao- 
meck, according to the investigations of Professor Holmes, of the National Ethno- 
logical Bureau, occupied the site now known as Andalusia, four miles below Alexan- 
dria. The great number of stone axes, javelin and arrow points, and fragments of 
pottery which have been turned up there by the plough, sufficiently attest the fact. 

Here, in 1608, that fearless explorer and doughty old soldier, Captain John Smith 
on his way up the Potomac to beyond the present site of the National Capital, stopped 
to hold parley with the reigning chief, and smoke the pipe of peace and friendship. 
Their settlement was the scene of a cruel and unsparing massacre by a force of aveng- 
ing colonists during the Bacon rebellion of 1676. Where their cabins clustered along 
the river shore in the primeval days, the suburban homes of Andalusia now rise up to 
greet the eye of the passer. 

FORT WASHINGTON, AND THE MOUTH OF THE PISCATAWAY-LEONARD 
CALVERT WITH HIS VANGUARD OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 

Seven miles below Alexandria, on the commanding heights of the old manorial es- 
tate of "Warburton," in Maryland, are the frowning battlements of Fort Washington. 
They help to give picturesqueness to the grand landscape of which they are a part, 
and they represent an expenditure of many hundred thousands of the public treasury, 
and many years of hard toil. of long-vanished builders. But that is all. For the de- 
fence of the National Capital, they are practically useless against the new methods of 
naval attack. In 1814, when the British fleet came up the Potomac, the garrison then 
occupying the works, abandoned them and allowed the enemy to proceed to Alexan- 
dria and plunder the city without molestation. At the foot of the heights, just under 
the walls where the waters of the Piscataway and the Potomac unite, came, in 16 "4, 
Governor Leonard Calvert with two hundred followers, most of them Roman 
Catholic gentlemen and their servants, to establish, under the provisions of a royal 
charter to his brother, Cecil Calvert (Lord Baltimore), a settlement of the new region 
of Maryland, as yet untenanted save by roving aborigines. He anchored his vessels, 
the "Dove" and a small pinnace, proclaimed the catholic faith, raised the standard of 
Old England and proceeded to negotiate with the Indians, who assembled on the shore 
to the number of five hundred. The chieftain of the tribe would neither bid him go 
nor stay. "He might use his own discretion." It did not seem safe for the English 
to plant their first settlement in the wilderness so high up the river, whereupon Calvert 
descended the stream, examining in his barge the creeks and estuaries near the Chesa- 
peake. He entered the river now called St. Mary's and which he named St. George's, 
and "about four leagues from its junction with the Potomac" he anchored at the Indian 
town of Yoacomoco. To Calvert the spot seemed convenient for a plantation. Mut- 
ual promises of friendship were made between the English and the natives, and upon 
the twenty-seventh day of March, 1634, the Catholics took quiet possession of the 
place, and religious liberty obtained a home — its only home in the wide world — at the 



36 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



humble village which bore the name of St. Mary's. Very soon after this time all the 
region around the Piscataway river was explored by the Calvert colonists ; and the 
Jesuit Missionaries who had come over with the proprietor established their missions 
from St. Mary's up to the Anacostia river. The parent mission under the direction of 
Father White was located at Piscataway. Great hopes were entertained by them of 
the evangelization of the Indians. Schools were instituted among them. A printing 
press, the first in all the colonies south of Massachusetts Bay was set up at Piscataway 



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and catechisms and portions of the gospels were printed in the Indian tongue, snme 
copies of which were brought to light only a few year.s ago in the library of the Vatican 
in Rome. For more than two hundred years they had lain there forgotten in the gath- 
ered dust w)th tie reports, the fathers had sent of their missions in those early times 
along the wild shores of the Potomac. 

Numbers of the Indians we are told by the chroniclers embraced the new faith and 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 37 

were baptized, among them King Chilomachen, his Queen, children and attendants. 
Of these self sacrificing missionaries, one of their faith has said : "Their pathways 
were through the wilderness and their first chapels were the wigwams of the savages. 
They assisted by pious rites in laying the foundations of a state. Tl>ey kindled the 
torch of civilization in the new found lands. They gave consolation to the grief 
stricken pilgrim. They taught the religion of Christ to the sons of the forest. The 
history of Maryland presents no better, no purer, no more sublime lesson than the story 
of the toils of her first missionaries." 

WHEN KING GEORGE 2ND. OF ENGLAND RULED VIRGINIA. 

CLIFTON FERRY. JOHNSON'S SPRING. DUELLING GROUND. 

"As ancient was this hostelry When folks lived in a grander way 

As any in the land may be, With ampler hospitality." 

Built in the Old Colonial day * * * . * 

By 1745 with the exit of the aboriginal inhabitants from the tide water regions of 
Virginia, the wave of civilization had advanced up the Potomac even to the slopes of 
the Blue Ridge. In that year was passed by the General Assembly an act establishing 
a public ferry from Clifton Neck, now the river farm of the Mount Vernon estate, to 
the Maryland shore. Capacious boats were provided for the ferriage of vehicles of every 
description as well as for pedestrians, horses and cattle, and were manned by sturdy 
negro oarsmen ; and but a few minutes were required by them to cross the stream. By 
this ferry went all the travel by land through the colonies between New York and 
Georgia. The rates of ferriage were "for a man or horse one shilling, for every coach, 
chariot or wagon and the driver thereof six shillings. For every cart or four wheeled 
chaise and the driver thereof four shillings. For every two wheeled chaise or chair 
two shillings." 

Archdeacon Burnaby in his travels through the middle settlements of America in 
1760 tells us he crossed the Potomac at this point going northward by Upper Marlboro 
and Annapolis. 

The Old Ferry House as shown in the engraving stood on the brow of the hill about 
fifty yards from the tide level. It fell to ruins fifty years ago. It was a noted place of 
entertainment on the great highway. The traveller always found under its roof an 
abundance of good fare ; for the river was stocked with the finest fish and the forests 
around abounded with wild game ; and there was no stint of apple brandy, cider and 
beer, old Jamaica and other beverages for all who were inclined in that direction, and 
most folks were so disposed in those primitive times. 

Not far from the doorway of the hostelry gushed the spring called by the Indians, 
the ''Great Fountain." Its waters clear and cold, still pour out from the hill side un- 
abated from year to year, just as they did in colonial times. Their source doubtless is 
among the distant rocks of the Blue Ridge. Perhaps the first white man who ever 
drank of them was Captain John Smith when he ventured up the Potomac in 160S. 
And no wonder that he told in his journal of the "sweet waters", with which the new 
region abounded. 

This locality was in the years far back a noted resort for duellists. The last duel 
was fought in 1805 as elsewhere noted in these pages. Later on, it was a favorite place 
for summer social gatherings of every description. Fourth of July parties met there 
from the two cities and celebrated Independence Day ; and Washington tells us in his 
diary that he met his neighbors there at barbecues and other social and political 
gatherings. 

No highway in all the land had more interesting historical associations than this by 
the Old Ferry. 

No road was used more frequently by Washington. He always took it when going 
to his river farm and to the races at Annapolis. It was the road he travelled when 
going to the first Continental Congress. 



38 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



In his diary for Aug. 30th, 1774, he says "Col. Pendleton, Mr. Henry and Col. 
Mason came to my house and remained all night." "Aug. 31, these gentlemen dined 
here, after which Col. Pendleton, Mr. Henry and myself set out on our journey for 
Philadelphia." They crossed the Potomac by Clifton ferry five miles below Alexan- 
dria into Prince George county, Maryland and reached Upper Marlboro for supper and 
lodging. "Sept. 1st, breakfasted at Queen Ann's ten miles further and dined at Annap- 
olis. Crossed the head of the Bay to Rock Hall in Kent county by the packet ferry. 
Here we supped and lodged. Sept. 2nd, dined at Rock Hall and thirteen miles 
further on in the journey supped and lodged at Newtown on Chester river." "Sept. 
3rd, breakfasted at Downs (now Galena) sixteen miles beyond. Dined at Buck tavern 
ten miles further. Lodged at New Castle eighteen miles. Breakfasted at Christina 
Ferry eight miles. Dined at Chester twelve miles. Fifteen miles beyond, after sup- 
ping at the New Tavern in Philadelphia lodged at Dr. Shippens, in all one hundred 
and fifty-one miles in five days. 




CLIFTON FERRY. 



Down this highway in 1781 came the forces of General Green going to the Caroli- 
nas, ani the armies of Washington, Lafayette, and Wayne going to Yorktown. By 
Washington's orders at the time the local militia was summoned to repair all the ways 
over which the troops, the beef cattle, the baggage wagons and artillery were to pass 
through the several counties of Virginia ; and the planters all along were requested by 
him as a particular mark of respect to assist the officers from point to point in their 
carriages. 

The National Capital was then but a straggling settlement with its few buddings in 
the midst of forests and swamps, with difficult approaches to it from every side. The 
Long Brklge had not been built and the only ferry to the Virginia Shore was that to 
Analostan Island, from Georgetown. 

The only traces of this highway in its course through the Mount Vernon estate may 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



39 



be seen in the clump of trees on the electric railway at Arcturus Station, as shown in 
the accompanying engraving. Clifton Ferry was discontinued after 1S08. 

The Old Ferry House as shown in the engraving stood on the brow of the hill about 
fifty yards from tide level. Fifty years ago it fell to ruins. 

"With weather stains upon its wall And creaking and uneven floors 

And stairways worn and crazy doors, And chimneys huge and tiled and tall." 




But a remnant left of the old highway, 

When George of England held royal sway — 

Only a hollow, worn deep in the bill- 
But listen well — it has tales to tell 

Of ihe tide of travel that over it roll'd 
For a hundred years in the days of old. 

Lift ye the ved, and the throngs shall pass 
Before your vision as in a glass. 

You wid hear the creak of the cumb'rous wain 
You will h^ar the teamster's shouts again. 

Before you will pass on its tedious way 
The stage and four of the ancient day. 

Anon, you will seethe pl.in'er ride 
With liveried coachman at his side — 

The gangs ol toilers will come and go 
From their endles- tasks of joy or woe. 

The steps of armies you will hear 

And their bugles will greet you loud and clear — 



THE OLD ROAD. 

Their drum's wild beat you will hear as well 

Echoing afar through the wooded dell — 
They are veterans tried and service worn 

With garments faded and rent and torn ; 
They have fought at Trenton and Lexington — 

Though fields they have lost, they have glory won, 
And their good flintlocks and powder dry 

They are keeping well for the by and by. 
Brave continentalers — they are marching down 

For the final fray at Old Yorktown! 
Mark ye the leaders in buff and blue — 

Washington and Green and "mad Wayne" too; 
And Lafayette and Chasteleux 

And the dashing count of Rochambeau, 
Our friendly allies from France afar 

Who have come to turn the tide of war. 
These are the virions which you may see 

If you lift the veil by the old highway. 



Fort Washington and Fort Hunt opposite to it on the Virginia shore command the 
approach by water to the National Capital and as a result of several years of constant 
work upon them by the Government are now fullv equipped for defence. When the 
great avenue in contemplation, to connect Arlington and Memorial Bridge with Mount 
Vernon shall be constructed, it will doubtless pass very near to Fort Hunt and so be- 
come a military as well as a public highway down from the National Capital. 

Little Hunting Creek which the ro id crosses at Riverside Park is the natural and 
lower boundary of Washington's River Farm of 2000 acres just travelled over, and 
which he purchased of William Clifton in 1767. .On the south side of the creek lies 
the other large farms of the Old Mount Vernon estate known as the Mansion House 
farm, Union farm, Dogue Run farm and Muddy Hole farm, containing in the aggre- 



40 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

gate, 6000 acres. The part of the estate on which the home is situated was included 
in a royal grant of 5000 acres made by Gov. Thomas, Lord Culpeper, in 1670 to 
Lieut. Col. John Washington and his associate in maritime adventure, Nicholas 
Spencer, in consideration of their services to the Virginia colony for bringing to its 
new lands from England one hundred immigrants or settlers. This Col. John Wash- 
ington was a great grandfather of General George Washington whose father Augustine 
purchased of the Spencer heirs their right in the original grant. By purchases from 
time to time previous to the Revolutionary war the General added one thousand acres 
more to the already large domain until its boundaries embraced a total of 8000 acres 
as held at the time uf his death in 1799. 

There is hardly a spot over this vast extent of land which has not known of the pres- 
ence of this great rural proprietor. There is not a valley, nor a hill, nor rivulet, nor 
spring that has not associations of him. He laid all its roads, divided all the different 
plantation tracts and directed in person all the improvements which went on from 
year to year over the estate. 

Little Hunting Creek in Washington's time was bordered by a dense growth of forest 
trees, which almost entirely shadowed its waters ; and at all seasons of the year, wild 
fowl, ducks, geese and swan gathered there in great numbers, affording for the general 
and his visiting friends ample opportunities for shooting which were as jealously guard- 
ed from invading poachers as those of any game reservation in Old England ; and the 
same protection was given to the game animals which wandered the wooded domains 
of the estate. 

Augustine Washington, father of George, laid the first foundation of the Mount Ver- 
non Mansion just previous to 1736. He erected then only the middle portion of the 
building as we now see it in its more pretentious entirety, with its commanding front, 
its broad veranda, its belfry and its numerous apartments. The first structure was 
plain and simple, but with its four rooms it was then deemed an ample dwelling place, 
and no important additions were made by the new proprietor until after his marriage 
which occurred in 1759. Between that time and the year 1786 he had fashioned the 
Mansion into very much the form and appearance which it presents to us today. His 
guests were constantly increasing from at home and abroad and he needed more room 
and style for their entertainment. He obtained from England workmen and materials 
and by the close of 1785 had completed his improvements in which he was his own 
architect, drawing every plan and specification with his own hand. The interior of 
the old house remained to a great extent unchanged, but wings were added and the ex- 
terior remodeled, so that its appearance today is very much the same as when com- 
pleted then. 

The Mansion is built of wood in imitation of rut stone, mainly after the style of a 
French Chatteau of the time of Louis fourteenth, is ninety-six feet in length by thirty- 
two in width, of two stories and a finished attic, with dormer windows surmounted by 
a graceful cupola which commands a fine view of the varied country surrounding it. 
Along the entire front' facing the river and Fort Washington is a wide veranda sup- 
ported by high square pillars and paved with a tesselated pavement of stones brought 
from White Haven, England, in 1785. The ground floor contains six rooms (there 
were originally but four) with the old spacious hall in the centre of the building, ex- 
tending through it from east to west, and the stairway. On the south side of the hall 
is the parlor, library and breakfast room, from which last a narrow staircase ascends to 
the private study on the second floor; on the north side a music room, parlor, and 
dancing-room, in which when there was much company the guests were sometimes enter- 
tained at table. The principal feature of this room is the large mantlepiece, wrought 
in Italy, of statuary and Sienite marbles, exquisitely carved in every part, bearing in 
relief, scenes in agricultural life. The interiors of the new rooms were finished to cor- 
respond with the old ones. At the same time were built, near the mansion on either 
side a substantial kitchen and laundry, connected with it by collonades. These, with 
other outlying buildings then erected, all remain, with the exception of an extensive 
conservatory. Washington, thus occupied with the development of his estate, was 
meanwhile unconsciously exercising a powerful influence on national affairs. He was 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



41 



obliged to maintain an extensive correspondence, and the opinions and counsels given 
in his letters were widely effective. No longer the soldier, he was now becoming the 
statesman. 

Exact plans and dimensions of the Mansion have been taken and will be preserved 
for use in case of destruction by fire. 




on 

q 



o 



GEORGE WASHINGTON AND HIS HOME. 

Tell us again the story We love to hear it often, 

Our sires and grandsires told ; 'Tis ever new, tho' old. 

On the fourteenth day of December, 1799, George Washington, the successful soldier 
and leader, the true patriot, the wise statesman, the estimable private citizen, the public 
benefactor and friend of all mankind, passed peacefully from earth, in his quiet home 
at Mount Vernon, to the inheritance of the rich rewards awaiting ,i life of exceeding 
great usefulness and honor. Since the occurrence of that event which brought griet 



42 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

and sorrow to the infant nation he had so faithfully labored to direct and establish, 
only one hundred years have elapsed, hardly five generations of his posterity ; and a 
few of late were still remaining among us who were then children. Yet, such was the 
sublime character and great worth of the revered chief, and such have been the grand 
results to the world of his heroic deeds and unselfish sacrifices, that in our grateful 
remembrance and almost pious veneration of him, the vista of time through which 
we look back in contemplation of his life and public services seems to us more like one 
of long centuries than that of the few scores of solemn anniversaries which have been 
recorded. As this vista lengthens and grows dimmer with the passing away of each 
succeeding year, we delight more and more to recount the story of his childhood and 
early training, of his military services and exploits, of his subsequent civil career, and, 
finally, of his retired life as a farmer on his broad Virginia estate, where, in the peace- 
ful tranquility of a mind untroubled by vain ambitions or harrassing regrets, he lived 
the happiest days of his eventful life. 

Mount Vernon, the home and tomb, will ever continue the grand focal point to 
which the generations of our republic will fondly turn in their love and admiration for 
the great chief. Then, shall we not keep on telling the "old, old story?" — the story 
which, though so often repeated, will be forever new, and will forever charm and 
please, — the one which poets shall sing and orators proclaim — the one which sires and 
grandsires shall relate to the eager ears of little children on their knees, which shall 
cross every sea, and be heard in every land and in every clime. Let it be told, and 
again and again repeated, so that no event nor circumstance connected with the bril- 
liant career of the pater patriae shall remain unknown or forgotten. His life and the 
precious memories of its well shaped and rounded works are the common patrimony of 
all liberty loving peoples and will be kept fresh and perennial. 

LAWRENCE WASHINGTON-HALF BROTHER OF GEORCE. 

Lawrence Washington deserves more than the incidental notices which have been 
accorded to him in other chapters of this Hand-book. In our regard for the merits 
and career of his distinguished brother, on whom too much praise cannot be bestowed, 
we are apt to lose sight of the noble and magnanimous spirit which was so instrumental 
in moulding and shaping that character which shines with such transcendent lustre in 
the galaxy of our Revolutionary heroes. Fifteen years older than his brother George, 
he at once in his orphanage filled the place of the correct fraternal exemplar and pa- 
ternal adviser. When Lawrence came up from the lower Potomac to the occupancy of 
the domainsof twenty-five hundred acres "lying along and south of Little Hunting 
Creek," George accompanied him, to his new home established by his father Augus- 
tine, a short time previously and named in honor of his old commander, Mount Ver- 
non, until Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax needed him to assist his cousin Geo. William 
Fairfax in establishing with compass and chain the butts and bounds of his possessions 
in the Shenandoah Valley. 

Major Lawrence Washington was the second child and only surviving son of Augus- 
tine Washington, and his first wife Jane (Butler) Washington, and was born in West- 
moreland county, Virginia, 171S. He was among the organizers of the "Ohio Com- 
pany" to explore the western country, encourage settlements, and conduct trade with 
the Indians. It was in his relations with this company that he won an enviable dis- 
tinction, as did his brother George after him, by avowing himself an advocate of re- 
ligious toleration at a time when the statutes of Virginia recognized but one religious 
faith. Never very strong physically, with the continued and increasing pressure of his 
public duties in the state council and the land company, his health gave way, and in 
1 751, accompanied by his brother George, he went for healing to the Island of Bar- 
badoes, but receiving norelief he returned to die at his Mount Vernon home, July, 1 752. 
His marriage with Annie Fairfax had been blessed by four children, three of whom 
had died. His surviving child, Sarah, was still an infant, at the time of her father's 
death. After providing in his will for his wife, he left Mount Vernon to his daughter, 
but in the event of her death without heirs, it was to go to his "beloved brother 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 



43 








From an original pointing in possession of Mr. Lawrence Washington. By courtesy. 



44 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

George." This daughter died within a year, and George inherited the "Home" before 
he was twenty-one years of age. 

COL. JOHN WASHINGTON, OF CAVE CASTLE, ENGLAND. 

The political dissensions which Convulsed the English people in the beginning of the 
seventeenth century, finally brought violent death to their king, Charles the First, and 
established in the place of their monarchical government, the protectorate of Oliver Crom- 
well. As a result of the revolution, the prominent adherents of royalty found them- 
selves without occupation or favor under the new rule, and many of them left the 
country and sought asylum in the newly-opened land "beyond the seas." Among 
these were Col. John Washington, the great grandfather of the Revolutionary general 
and first president of the United States, and his brother Lawrence who migrated from 
South Cave in the east riding of Yorkshire on the banks of the Humber river. They 
settled first in 1659 in the county of Westmoreland at Bridge's Creek. They had pas- 
sage over in a ship owned by Edward Prescott of which John Green was Captain. 
During the voyage a woman of the name of Elizabeth Richardson, a fanatical zealot in- 
curred the displeasure of some of the passengers on account of her insane rantings and 
singular behavior, and was hanged by them to the yard arm, under the accusation of 
practicing the art of witchcraft. In her misfortune she appealed to the commiseration 
of Col. John who vainly interposed to save her. The wanton and lawless act was so 

revolting to his intelligence and kinder 
feelings that upon landing in the Chesa- 
peake, he reported the case to the au- 
thorities and had the owner and Cap- 
tain of the vessel held in bonds to appear 
for trial before the provincial court of 
St. Mary's. The trial, owing to the un- 
certainties and delays of those early times 
never took place. 

John Washington seems to have been 
a man of means as well as influence. 
He patented a large tract ~of land be- 
tween the Potomac and the Rappahan- 
nock, raised tobacco extensively and was 
elected a member of the House of Bur- 
gesses. His marriage to Ann Pope oc- 
curred soon after his arrival in the 
colony. Having a military inclination, 
he was appointed a colonel of the militia. In this capacity he became a con- 
spicuous actor in many of the tragic events of the Bacon rebellion during the year 
of 1665-6 which followed the harrassing retaliations of the Indians on the colonists 
for their depredations upon their domains of forest and stream. 

After the murder of the herdsman, Henn, in 1666, by the Dogue Indians, in Truro 
parish, near the Occoquan river, and the prompt pursuit of the murderers by the 
mounted rangers of the county of Stafford to their town of Assaomcck twenty miles up 
the Potomac, where they were overtaken and massacred at the doors of their wigwams, 
all the other tribes on both sides of the river, up and down, took refuge with the Piscata- 
ways, a powerful tribe dwelling on the heights now occupied by the battlements of Fort 
Washington : and here in alliance they proceeded to fortify themselves by embank- 
ments, ditches and palisades against the advance of the colonists. To dislodge this 
force of savages, two thousand troops of the Maryland and Virginia militia were speedily 
raised and placed under the command of Col. John Washington, who had under him 
Majors Mason, Brent and other military notables of the time. After a protracted siege 
of six weeks the small number of the besieged who had escaped bullets and starvation, 
capitulated to their assailants. The destruction was complete and vengeance was 
satisfied. 




CAVE CASTLE, ENGLAND 

By courtesy of Mr. Henry Dudley Teeter. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 45 

Three years before this siege Col. John as elsewhere related had been engaged with 
Nicholas Spencer in bringing into the province one hundred immigrants, for which 
they obtained a royal patent for 5000 acres now included within the bounds of Mount 
Vernon. 

At the time of this patent, Stafford was the uppermost county, stretching intermin- 
ably beyond the Alleghanies and to the Mississippi valley. Prince William and Fair- 
fax were not set off until nearly fifty years afterward. The town of "Assaomeck" was 
about four miles below Great Hunting Creek on that division of the Mount Vernon 
"river farm" now known as Andalusia. It was just opposite to Broad Creek in Mary- 
land. 

Col. John died in 1677. He was first married in England. His wife and two 
children came with him to Virginia, but the three died soon after arriving. As else- 
where noted his second wife was Ann Pope of Pope's Creek, Westmoreland county. 
By this alliance he had children — first Lawrence, born 1661, who in t6qo was married 
to Mildred Warner, of Gloucester Co., Va. His child Augustine was born at Bridge's 
Creek 1694. He was twice married, first April 20, 1 715, to Jane Butler, daughter of 
Caleb Butler of Westmoreland county, by whom he had four children of .whom only 
Lawrence survived to manhood, born 1718 died in 1752 at his home at Mount Ver- 
non. Augustine born 1720, died young. Their mother died in 1728 and was buried 
in the family vault. Augustine was again married to Mary Ball "the rose of Epping 
Forest" and daughter of Joseph Ball of Lancaster county, Va. By her he had six 
children, namely, George, born at Wakefield, February 22, 1732 — died at Mount Ver- 
non December 14, 1799 '• Betty, born at Wakefield June 20, 1733 — died March 1799 > 
Samuel born at Wakefield, November 15, 1734 — died 1781; John Augustine, born 
doubtless at Epsewasson, Fairfax county, Va., January 13, 1756 — died 1762 ; Charles 
born doubtless at same place, May 2, 1738 — died 1799 ; Mildred born at Wakefield, 
June 21, 1739 — died 1740. Mary the mother died at Fredericksburg, August, 25, 1789 
at the age of 82. Betty Washington was married to Col. Fielding Lewis. Their son 
Lawrence was married to Eleanor (Nellie) Parke Custis. 

SUMMARY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

"What is a name ; As we wreathe or build it ; And the birth dawns beacon adown the ages 

Stucco or granite, bastile or fane ; With a lurid flash or a blaze sublime, 

And the stern years crumble or freshly gild it As to meaner goals or diviner stages, 

As it grows in honor or reaps disdain. It exemplars Man through the storms of time." 

George Washington, whether as a private citizen mingling with his neighbors and 
friends in a social or business capacity, or whether as a dignified actor and director in 
the public and national affairs of his country, is one of the very few men in the records 
of history, who have successfully and triumphantly withstood the test and scrutiny of 
the world's adverse criticism. He stands out on the shifting scenes of the world's 
annals as a grandly imposing and unique personage, meriting and commanding as well, 
the veneration of every observer, no matter of what country or nationality — and the 
citizens of the country he loved and defended, in their enthusiasm and gratitude for 
his brilliant public services, love to contemplate him as a personage divinely ordained 
and appointed to open the way, not only for civil and religious liberty in America, but 
everywhere among the oppressed of humanity. 

He left the quietude and enjoyments of a rural life when great political emergencies 
needed a capable advisor, actor and leader whose sentiments were known to be unre- 
servedly opposed to royal impositions and exactions and in favor of home rule and 
independence ; and stepping forth on the scene of action was hailed with acclamation 
as the man eminently qualified for the momentous and responsible duties before him. 
By his prompt and patriotic response to a common call he won the popular confidence 
and esteem, and by his wise and prudent counsels many discordant elements were 
harmonized and brought into subjection to the cause he had espoused. But his new 
sphere of action was to be amid perplexities and trials which might have discouraged 
many a brave commander. His mission was to hastily organize into armies, raw re- 



Ill 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



cruits from the peaceful avocations of life and direct them against the veteran soldiers 
of his king, to dispute their invasion of colonial soil, and while performing this diffi- 
cult service he was everywhere to move among and come into contact with stealthy 
foes among his own countrymen who were committed to the cause of royalty and the 
betrayal of the colonists. 




PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON. 
From a painting by Gilbert Stewart. 

He was not a soldier because of his fondness for tinsel, parade or mere military glory, 
but because of the exigencies of the times in which he lived. After these exigencies had 
passed he gladly yielded up all investiture of military authority and dropped back to 
the enjoyments of the calm delights of peace and quietude in his rural retreat ; not sigh- 
ing, as many warriors had done before him, that there were no more victories to 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 47 

achieve, but rejoicing in the coming of the blessed reign of peace. His mission as a 
soldier had been grandly accomplished and he was well content to await its beneficent 
results. • 

As a victor he was magnanimous, lenient and forbearing — never vaunted of his mili- 
tary prowess; and of all the pictorial representations which adorned his rooms at 
Mount Vernon, not one of them represented any of the revolutionary scenes in which 
he had figuied. 

There have been soldiers who have achieved mightier victories in the field and made 
conquests more nearly corresponding to the boundlessness of selfish ambition, 
statesmen who have been connected with more startling upheavals of society; but it is 
the greatness of Washington that in public trusts he used power solely for the public 
good ; that he was the life and moderator and stay of the most momentous revolution 
in human affairs ; its moving impulse and its restraining power. Combining the cen- 
tripetal and centrifugal forces in their utmost strength, and in perfect relations, with 
creative grandeur of instinct he held ruin in check and renewed and perfected the in- 
stitutions of his country. Finding the colonies disconnected and dependent, he left 
them such a united and well ordered commonwealth as no visionary had believed to be 
possible. So that it has been truly said, "he was as fortunate as great and good." 
This also fs the praise of Washington, that never in the tide of time has any man lived 
who had in so great a degree the almost divine faculty tocommand the confidence of his 
fellow men and influence all classes. Wherever he became known in his family, his neigh- 
borhood, his county, his native state, the continent, the camp, civil life, the United 
States, among the common people, in foreign courts, throughout the civilized world of 
the human race, and even among the savages, he, beyond all other men, had the con- 
fidence of his kind. 

On the sixteenth of June, 1775, he appeared in his place in Congress, after his ap- 
pointment as commander-in-chief of the colonial armies, and after refusing all pay be- 
yond his expenses, he spoke with unfeigned modesty to his colleagues — (i As the Con- 
gress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess 
in their service and for the support of the glorious cause. But I beg it may be remem- 
bered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerity, 
I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with." 

Washington was not a bigot nor a zealot in religion, nor even a sectarian. "Pro- 
foundly impressed with confidence in God's providence, and exemplary in his respect 
for the forms of public worship, no philosopher of the eighteenth century was more firm 
in the support of freedom of religious opinion ; but belief in God and trust in His over- 
ruling power formed the essence of his character. He believed that wisdom not only 
illumines the spirit, but inspires the will. He was a man of action and not of theory 
or words. His creed appears in his life, not in his profession. His whole being was 
one continued act of faith in the eternal, intelligent, moral order of the universe. His 
broad and liberal conceptions of what constituted the basis of a common fatherhood 
and a common brotherhood would not allow of any narrowing or dwarfing of his natural 
convictions by the trammels of religious dogmas or formulas, and so he was tolerant 
of the fullest religious liberty and thought, believing that every man had the right 
implanted in him by the God of nature to worship Him in whatever way seemed to 
him best, consequently the creed of no church ever held him exclusively within its 
narrow limits. His true and tried friends were confined to no religious denomination, 
but were chosen from the widest range of religious thought, and selected only for real 
worth and integrity of character. His published letters in reply to the personal addresses 
of the various religious organizations of the United States in the early days of the re- 
public, all breathe the most commendable spitit of Christian liberality and toleration, 
and show him to have been devoid of any sectarian prejudices. As his diary bears 
witness, he was accustomed to attendance at all forms of worship, and doubtless he al- 
ways found something in each which his unprejudiced judgment could approve and ac- 
cept. In his neighborhood no churches existed but the Episcopal. These the laws of 



48 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



the colony had established, to the prejudice of all others, and made respectable, and it 
was quite natural, from his reverential and orderly habits, that he should have been an 
habitual attendant at their services with his neighbors ; and while he was one of the 
vestry in the church of both Alexandria and Pohick, he doubtless busied himself very 
little about vestry matters, further than to fill the miscellaneous requirements.* 

Though a communicant of the established Church 
and a respecter of its forms and its clergy from early 
associations, yet was he in sympathy and perfect accord 
with Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and Patrick 
Henry in their efforts to repeal all laws which discrim- 
inated in favor of any one religious sect by giving to it 
tithes and glebes, and enabling it thereby to keep up 
its congregations and attendance upon its services. 

He appears to have been so impressed with the im- 
portance of listening to the inward monitor, or, as the 
Quakers are wont to express it, "the still, small voice," 
that in his rules of civility and behavior, written out by 
him for his guidance at the age of thirteen he enjoined 
upon himself ' : to labor to keep alive in his breast that 
little spark of celestial fire called conscience. " At that 
early age his code of rules show that he had determined 
to begin life right, and the story of all his subsequent 
years is evidence that he continued right. The germs 
of innate goodness and excellence had been implanted 
in his being and through wise parental solicitude and 
instruction and a strict obedience to duty ; they steadily 
and beautifully unfolded to public observation and 
admiration with the passing of the years of his life. 
The pole-star of his impulses and the drift of his 
being were right and duty; to these everything was 
subordinate. He read correctly the motives of men 
and measured accurately their capabilities, and rarely 
erred in his estimate of character. He was frank 
in his intercourse — never dissembled, never stooped 







*In those times the duties of the church vestry embraced not only 
religious matters but also many secular neighborhood affairs, re- 
quiring the judgment of just such a practical man as Washington. 
Under the direction of the vestry the tithe collector went forth to 
levy upon every land owner in the parish. Under their authority 
the "processioners" surveyed and established all land boundaries. 
To the Church Wardens it pertained to bind apprentices to their 
masters — record of the indentures being duly made in the vestry 
book. To them were paid the fines for the violation of Sunday 
penal statutes. Thus in 1775 we find the following entry in the 
proceedings of the vestry of Christ Church of which Washington 
was a member. "By cash received of Mr. Win. Adams for the 
several fines for deer killing out of season, delivered to him by Mr, 
Bryan Fairfax j£2.ios." and in 1778 the following: 

£ s. d. 

By Lawrence Monroe for gaming .... 2 10 o 
" Thomas Lewis for hunting on Sabbath . 5 o 

" John Lewis 50 

Upon the vestry also devolved the relief of the poor, the medical care of the sick, the charge 
the burial of the dead, maintenance of the blind, the lame, the maimed, and also of foundings 
vagrants. 




M 



for 

and 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 49 

to mean devices nor subterfuges. While he was open and courteous, fraternal and ap- 
proachable, he was never trivial, never forgot his dignity, but always, whatever the 
occasion, so demeaned himself as to inspire every one with whom he came into con- 
tact, whether socially or in a business' way, with the feeling that he was one of the very 
first of men among men. Washington was not an orator, and seldom attempted to ex- 
press himself at length on any public occasion, but as a writer he excelled. His style, 
as preserved in many volumes of miscellaneous letters and state papers, was plain, clear, 
and without unnecessary verbiage, and his expressions were rarely marred by instances 
of false syntax, though he had never had the advantages of more than a very limited 
common school education ; but from his youth upward he had been a constant and at- 
tentive reader of the best literature of the times, and was very observant of the acknowl- 
edged models of the English language. 

In all his business transactions, and they were many and varied, no instances have 
been recorded by any writer of any attempt on his part to get the advantage of any of 
his fellows. He was a fast friend and a patron of merit. He recognized the divinity 
of labor, and believed that it should be respected and fully requited. True, he was a 
slave holder, but it was for the reason that labor was urgently needed in those times to 
open and subdue the wilderness, produce supplies, and develop the great resources of 
the country ; but he did not look upon his bondsmen as mere machines, devoid of 
feelings or sensibilities. There is the most authentic evidence that he looked most 
carefully after their welfare in respect to diet, raiment, quarters, and seasons of toil; 
had them taught habits of industry, provided medical attendance for them in sickness, 
allowed them religious instruction, and by his last bequest, made July 9, 1799, ordered 
that they should all be freed. And it is but just to mention in this connection that 
from no one of his freed folks or their immediate descendants has there ever been 
heard any instance of unnecessary severities under his benign rule as a master. 

The estate was large, and land for tillage was plentiful, and every family had ample 
privilege of having plots of ground for growing all kinds of vegetables, while fish were 
abundant in the rwer and creeks, and wild game plentiful in the woods. 

In 1786, he wrote to Robert Morris, "There is not a man living who wishes more ' 
sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery. But there is 
only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by 
legislative authority ; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting." 
And in another letter, written to his nephew, Robert Lewis, August 17, 1799, f° ur 
months before his death, he says, "I have more negroes on my estate of Mount Ver- 
non than can be employed to any advantage in the farming system ; and I shall never 
turn planter thereon. To sell the overplus I cannot, because I am principled against 
that kind of traffic in the human species. To hire -them out is almost as bad, because 
they cannot be disposed of in families and I have an aversion to that system." 

In a letter to John F. Mercer, of Virginia, September, 1786, he wrote, "I never 
mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess another 
slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which 
slavery in this country may be abolished by law," Martha, his widow, in 1801, man- 
umitted all the slaves she held in her own right. 

The relation of the African race to our nation, Washington represented. He was 
not a radical reformer, not an ideal theorist, but a practical thinker and actor, and as 
such he interpreted the African's destiny. He recognized his capacity to be a tiller 
of the soil and a mechanic, and treated him kindly ; and taught and practised the prin- 
ciple of emancipation. He regarded slavery, indeed, as the la.v of the land, and de- 
nied the right of any citizen to interfere with the legal claims of the master to his slave 
but he thought the law ought to be changed, and he stands in our history as the repre- 
sentative of the old school of emancipationists who regarded slavery as a fading relic 
of a semi-civilized form of society. He could work with the negro and mingle praise 
with blame in his judgments, and, without having extreme opinions of their gifts or 
virtues, he thought them fitted for freedom and capable of education. 

He was methodical in all his undertakings and pursuits, no matter hew common 



50 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



place; kept a diary of ordinary as well as extraordinary events, and noted down reg- 
ularly from day to day his expenditures, whether incurred for household necessities, 
raiment, the carrying on of his farm arrangements, or for traveling. His strict atten- 
tion to details, added to his habit of close observation and investigation and correct 
judgment, was the secret of the remarkable success which attended him through life. 
It made him the accurate surveyor, the safe counselor, the efficient general, the capa- 
ble and trusted President, and it made him one of the best farmers of his time. His 
handwriting, from his characteristic order and care, was invariably neat and legible 
whether he wrote a state paper, a letter to some home or foreign dignitary, or whether 
he wrote a deed for the conveyance of land, or an order on his merchant, or a receipt 
to his mechanic, every letter was well formed and distinct, so that it never required, as 
is too often the case with public men of our dav, much time to decipher his meaning. 
\s a farmer he was not content to merely follow the modes which had long prevailed 
with the planters around him, but at a very early period of his farming operations 
he put into practice new and more advantageous systems of croppings and manuring ; 




SULGRAVE MANOR, ENGLAND. 
Residence of some of Washington's Ancestors. 

laid down his land to grass ; planted out orchards of the best fruits then obtainable ; 
employed the newest agricultural implements, and had a constant care to obtain the 
-eedsand the most improved stock. Washington was a farmer by choice and be- 
cause he believed the "calling to be the most healthful, the most useful, and the no- 
blest employment of man." He might have entered many avenues opened for him 
when a young man which would have insured success whatever the undertaking. But 
the quietude and peaceful surroundings of a rural life were more in keeping with his 
natural inclinations than the circumstances of other pursuits, which to many of the 
young men now coming up around us seem far more attractive. 

He was domestic in his habits, and loved the peace, the tranquility, and joys of home 
life. And we most delight to dwell on the part of the history of this great man which 
pictures tint life — the life he led as a plain, unpretending citizen of the republic he 
had been so instrumental in establishing. What to a man of the finer sensibilities is 
the tinselry and show and power of a public life when compared with genial minds and 
with a nature clothed in the simple and beautiful garb of truth ? Of all men none could 
appreciate the difference better than Washington. "I am now, I believe," he writes 
in a letter from Mount Vernon, "fixed in this seat, and I hope to find more happiness 
in retirement than I ever experienced in the wide and bustling world." 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 51 

His hospitality was large, and his generosities and charities wide-reaching. No one 
was more ready to acknowledge an error of heart or judgment, nor more magnanimous 
to those differing in opinions. 

We do not claim that he was perfect, for perfection in humanity is impossible. We 
only claim for him that he came as near to filling the measure of the "noblest work of 
God" as any other man in history. And certainly no character in all its aspects or 
bearings is more worthy of emulation by the youth of our country than his. The clos- 
ing scene of his life on the fourteenth of December, 1799, was peaceful, and a grateful 
people mourned for him as a father indeed. 

He had rounded out to the full his matchless lifework. There was nothing left for 
him to do. He escaped the quicksands into which other feet have been tempted, and 
folding his hands, lay down and passed away in the fullness of years, with his fame at 
its zenith, and like the star set in the heavens, too firmly placed, to be drawn aside from 
its orbit. 

"When common men have perished To lowly dust and ashes 

No earthly trace we find ; Though mortal flesh hath gone, 

The soul of this our hero No grave can ever hide him — 
Rose ami remained behind. His very life lives on." 

COLONEL WASHINGTON OF MOUNT VERNON. 

Owing to the death, some years before, of Lawrence Washington's only child, Sara, 
followed as it shortly after was by that of his widow, Annie, Colonel George Washing- 
ton, already proprietor of the paternal estate on the Rappahannock, had inherited, with 
much additional property, the magnificent domain of Mount Vernon, and was now 
one of the wealthiest planters of the Old Dominion. Washington's fondness for agri- 
cultural pursuits had not been the only motive of his retirement. The harassing cares 
of his command had not exerted a complete monopoly of his thoughts during this pro- 
longed period of Indian warfare. The romantic traditions of his courtship it is un- 
necessary to recall here. On the seventeenth of January, 1759, he was married to 
Mrs. Custis, a very young and wealthy widow, who formerly had been the most attrac- 
tive belle at the vice-regal court of Williamsburg. The ceremony was performed 
amid a joyous assemblage of relatives and friends, at the White House, the bride's 
home, where they remained until the trees were budding at Mount Vernon, when they 
took up their permanent residence there. Washington at this time wrote to a 
friend, "I am now, I believe, fixed in this seat, with an agreeable partner for life, and 
I hope to find more happiness in retirement than I ever expeiienced in the wide and 
bustling world. ... No estate in America is more pleasantly situated. In a high 
and healthy country: in a latitude between the extremes of heat and cold ; on one 
of the finest rivers in the world — a river well stocked with various kinds of fish at all 
seasons of the year. The borders of the estate are washed by more than ten miles of 
tidewater. The whole shore is one entire fishery." The whole region thereabout, 
with its range of forests and hills and picturesque promontories, afforded sport of var- 
ious kinds; and was a noble hunting-ground. , 

These were, as yet, the aristocratical days of Virginia. The estates were large, and 
continued in the same families by entail. A style of living prevailed which has long 
since faded away. The houses, liberal in all their appointments, were fitted to cope 
with the free-handed, open-hearted hospitality of the owners. Each estate was a little 
empire, and its mansion-house the seat of government, where the planter ruled supreme. 
The negro quarters formed a hamlet apart. Among the slaves were artificers of all 
kinds, so that a plantation produced within itself everything for ordinary use. Arti- 
cles of fashion and elegance, luxuries and expensive clothing were imported from Lon- 
don, for the planters on the Potomac carried on an immediate trade with England. 

Their tobacco, put up by their own negroes, bore their own marks, and was shipped 
directly to their agents in Liverpool or Bristol, Edinburg or Bordeaux. 

Washington, instead of trusting to overseers, gave his personal attention to every de- 
tail of the management of his estate. He carried into his rural affairs the same method, 
activity, and circumspection that had distinguished him in military life. He made a 



OZ SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

complete survey of his lands, apportioned them into farms, and regulated the cultiva- 
tion of all. The products of his estate became so noted for the faithfullness — as to 
quality and quantity — with which they were put up, that it is stated that any barrel of 
flour that bore the brand of George Washington, Mount Vernon, was exempted from 
the customary inspection in the ports to which it was sent. There were many relax- 
ations in the arduous duties he had assumed. He delighted in the chase. In the 
height of the season he would be out with the fox hounds two or three times a week, 
accompanied by his guests and the gentlemen of the neighborhood, and ending the 
day with a hunting dinner, when he is said to have enjoyed himself with unwonted 
hilarity. He also greatly relished duck shooting, in which he was celebrated for his 
skill. The Potomac was the scene of considerable aquatic state at that time, and 
Washington had his barge, rowed by six uniformed negroes, to visit his friends on the 




WASHINGTON AT FORTY. 



From a painting by Charles Peale. 
1772 



Of this painting Washington makes these notes in his diary : 
'Viay 20, 1 7 7 .2, sat for Mr. Peale to have my picture taken. May 21, - I 1" the 

drapery. May 22, sal f >i Mr. Peale to finis In the afternoon rode with him 

to my mill. Returned home by the Ferry plantation." 



Maryland side of the river. He had his chariot and four, with black postilion 
in livery, for the use of Mrs. Washington and her ladv visitors. As for him* 
he always red back. 1 lis stable was well filled and admirably regu- 

lated — his stud all thoroughbred. Occasionally he and Mrs. Washington would pay a 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 53 

visit to Annapolis, and partake of the gaities which prevailed there during the sessions 
of the legislature. 

In this round of rural occupations, rural amusements and social intercourse, Washing- 
ton passed many tranquil years, the halcyon season of his life. His already established 
reputation drew many visitors to Mount Vernon, who were sure to be received with 
cordial hospitality. His marriage was unblessed with children, but those of Mrs. 
Washington received from him parental care and affection. His domestic concerns 
were never permitted to interfere with his public duties. As judge of the county court, 
and member of the House of Burgesses, and executor oftentimes for his neigbors, 
he had numerous calls upon his time and thought ; for whatever trust he undertook, 
he was sure to fulfill with scrupulous exactness. 

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

The storm of the Revolution, so long impending, had suddenly burst over the land, 
and Washington, who had represented Virginia in the First Continental Congress and 
was now a member of the second, was by it, June 15, 1775, unanimously called to the 
command of the colonial army. On the 20th he received his commission and the fol- 
lowing day started for Boston on horseback to take command. "There is something 
charming to me in the conduct of Washington," wrote John Adams at the time. "A 
gentleman of one of the first fortunes on the continent, leaving his delicious retirement, 
his family and friends,, sacrificing his ease and hazarding all in the cause of his countrv. 
His views are noble and disinterested." And Mrs. Adams wrote on his arrival before 
Boston, "Dignity, ease and complacency, the gentleman and the soldier are agreeably 
blended in him. Modesty marks every feature of his face." The honors with which 
he was received only told him how much was expected from him, and when he looked 
around upon the raw and rustic levies he was to command, "a mixed multitude of peo- 
ple, without discipline, order, or government," scattered about in rough encampments, 
beleaguering a city garrisoned by an army of veteran troops with ships of war in its 
harbor, he felt the awful responsibility of his situation, and the complicated and stu- 
pendous task before him. "The cause of my country" he wrote, "has called me to 
active and dangerous duty, but I trust that Divine Providence will enableme to discharge 
it with fidelity and success." With what unswerving and untiring fidelity, and with what 
complete and splendid ultimate success — despite disaster, mutiny, faithlessness, and 
•treachery in those most trusted, privations without parallel, difficulties such as never 
leader encountered before, bitter rivalries, the opposition of Congress, and the loss of 
confidence, as once well nigh seemed, of a whole people — Washington, never faltering, 
discharged his trust during the long, weary years that followed, needs no repetition 
here. There are no better known pages in the world's history. 

THE FIRST PRESIDENT. 

The electors chosen under the new Constitution were unanimous in calling Washing- 
ton to the presidential chair. On the 16th of April, 17S9, he again bade adieu to 
Mount Vernon, and set out for the seat of government. His progress to New York was 
a continuous ovation. There on April 30th, the first President of the United States 
was inaugurated. 

It is not our purpose to dwell upon the incidents of the following eight years, when 
Washington so worthily filled the loftiest position within the gift of any people. Dur- 
ing this period, crowded with events most important in the formative history of the 
republic, its chief magistrate — it may surprise those unfamiliar with the publications of 
the time: — was pursued in his official acts, and even private life, by a bitter partisan 
malignity, the like of which is almost unknown in our later day. The pressure of pub- 
lic duties admitted but few opportunities to visit his home. During one of these visits 
there, in the summer of 1796, he wrote his farewell address, which a great British his- 
torian has declared to be "unequalled by any composition of uninspired wisdom." He 
was now looking forward with unfeigned longing to his retirement. His term of office 
expired March 4, 1797, wb.cn Mr. Adams, in his inaugural address, spoke of his prede- 



54 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

cessor as one "who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, 
temperance, and fortitude, had merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded 
the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity." 

LAST WILL OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

In July of 1799, only a few months previous to his death, George Washington 
made his last will and testament with the following preamble, the brevity of which, as 
well as the clearness of language in the bequests which follow it, are in striking con- 
trast with the rambling verbiage of the wills generally of that time, as appears by the 
county records. 

"I George Washington of Mount Vernon, a citizen of the United States and lately 
President of the same, do make, ordain, and declare this instrument which is written by 
my own hand and every page thereof subscribed with my name to be my last Will and 
Testament, revoking all others." 

The handwriting of this interesting historic document still preserved in the Clerk's 
office of Fairfax county, is in the writer's usual careful and legible style. 

To his wife Martha, he devised with some exceptions "all his estate, real and person- 
al for the term of her natural life. At Mrs. Washington's death, which occurred May 
22, 1802, his estate left, to her was to be divided among his many relatives and to 
public institutions of learning and to charities, under particular specifications. His 
real estate in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky not including 
the domain of Mount Vernon of 8000 acres and the town lots in Alexandria and the 
National Capital amounted to 5000 acres. Just what his personal effects amounted to 
does not appear, but the value is known to have been very considerable. 

In the will the testator directs about the place and manner of his last resting place 
in the following clause : 

"The family vault at Mount Vernon requiring repairs and being improperly situated, 
besides, I desire that a new one of brick, and upon a larger scale may be built at the 
foot of what is commonly called the Vineyard Inclosure on the ground which is mark- 
ed out — in which my remains with those of my family as may choose to be entombed 
•there may be deposited — and it is my express desire that my corpse may be interred 
in a private manner, without parade or funeral oration." 

At the President's death all his slaves numbering several hundred, were to be freed 
with explicit direction that such of them who were by bodily infirmities, old age or 
infancy, unable to support themselves should be comfortably clothed and fed by his 
heirs while they lived. There were many of this class and they became a heavy ex- 
pense to the estate for many years. No one of them under any circumstances was a- 
gain to become a slave. Mrs. Washington manumitted all her dower slaves a year be- 
fore her death. The executors of the will were Martha Washington, William Augustine 
Washington, Bushrod Washington, George Steptoe Washington, Samuel Washington, 
Lawrence Lewis and George Washington Custis. 

The last will of Martha Washington is not extant, it having been destroyed with 
other county records during the civil war. But it is known that the most of her large 
estate consisting chiefly of bonds, cash, and stocks was divided among her four grand 
children, George Washington Custis, Mrs. Eliza Law, Mrs. Martha Peters and Mrs. 
Eleanor (Nellie) Lewis. 

MOUNT VERNON. 
THE HOME AND TOMB OF WASHINGTON. 

One hundred and sixty-five years ago when Captain Augustine Washington, grand- 
son of Col. John Washington of Cave Castle, England, the first immigrant of the name 
to the province of Virginia, was laying the foundations of the home of his eldest son 
Lawrence, on the commanding heights of the Upper Potomac, if some astrologer had 
been present to set his square of the planets and cast the horoscope of the undertaking 
he might truly have foretold that. 

"A mansion built with such auspicious rays 

Would live to see old walls and happy days." 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 55 

The site of the historic habitation was then an unbroken forest whose solitudes dense 
and profound as in the long centuries before, had as yet, hardly heard the sound of an 
axe or the tread of any human being save that of the swarthy savage. The deer, the 
bear and the wolf, still made it their wild abode, and remnants of the old Algonquins 
were yet threading their shadowy trails. 

Captain Washington had been a seafaring man, plowing the Atlantic seas for several 
years, bringing over immigrants from England and carrying back iron ore, and other 
commodities, but now he was a landsman in the Virginia province turning his atten- 
tion to home making, and as the sequel has proven, "building better than he knew." 

Lawrence, the son for whom he was building was then a young man of three and twenty 
and was "off to the war" a Captain with the Virginia contingent of Provincials in 
Col. Couch's regiment, serving under the command of Admiral Vernon of the British 
Navy in the siege against the town of Carthagena in Spanish America. George, his 
younger half brother, a boy of four or five years was living two miles below in the little 
mill house at Epsewasson, enjoying the rare delights of wood and stream which that 
pleasant locality afforded. 

Only the middle portion of the Mount Vernon Mansion as we now see it in its more 
perfect entirety, was then constructed. The first building was plain and simple, but 
with its four rooms it was deemed an ample dwelling place for that early day and no 
additions were made to it for many years to come. 

Augustine, the father, left the Epsewasson neighborhood to go back to the lowlands 
of King George county where he died in 1743 By a provision ot his last will and 
testament his eldest son Lawrence was to inherit all the tract of land whereon he had 
built the homestead already described. He returned from the Spanish main in the 
Autumn of 1742 and after his father's death, took possession of his inherited patrimony 
which consisted of twenty-five hundred acres lying below and along the course of Little 
Hunting Creek and fronting on the Potomac river. This tract was the share which had 
fallen by division to his great grandfather, John Washington before mentioned, of the 
patent of 5 000 acres in 1674 from Gov. Lord Culpeper in payment for their mutual venture 
in bringing into the province according to an act of the General Assembly one hun- 
dred immigrants from England as settlers. It was known at the time as the "Hunting 
Creek plantation" Augustine had inherited the tract irom his father Lawrence, the son 
of John Washington, who died in 1677. 

Major Lawrence Washington in July, 1743, was married to Annie, eldest daughter of 
the Hon. William Fairfax one of the King's council and proprietor of the princely 
home of Belvoir. 

He named his home in honor of the British admiral under whom he had lately serv- 
ed as a soldier, but he did not live long to enjoy it. The hardships he had under- 
gone in the tropics during the Spanish war had underminded his physical power, never 
very strong, and he was induced to make a voyage to the Island of Barbadoes in the 
hopes of finding relief from his infirmities. In this voyage he was accompanied by his 
ever faithful b other George. But the voyage and stay of seven months on the Island 
gave him no permanent benefit. He returned to the shades of the Potomac just in time 
to receive the kind ministrations of his anxious wife and friends and died in his own 
house, July 26, 1752, at the age of thirty-four. His remains rest just behind those of his 
brother in the Mount Vernon vault. In his will, after making ample provision for his 
.wife and infant daughter Sara, and only child, he conditioned that in the event of the 
death of that child to whom Mount Vernon had been left conditionally by his father, 
then the property should descend to his beloved brother George. Sara, the daughter 
died soon after and George before the age of twenty was in possession of the Mount 
Vernon domain. 

Lawrence Washington's widow having been provided for by bequests of other pro- 
erty was again married to Col. George Lee an uncle of Arthur and Richard Henry Lee 
of Revolutionary fame. Owing to his connection with the military events preceding 
and following the disastrous expedition of General Braddock against the French and 
Indians on the Ohio frontier, Washington was called away from Mount Vernon the best 



56 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

of seven years. He came toils more constant occupancy in 1758, after the fall of Fort 
Duquesne, the defeat of the combined forces of French and Indians, and cessation of 
hostilities, and shortly afterwards found a mistress for his home in the person of Martha 
Custis of New Kent county. They were married in January, 1759. 

At that time hardly one-fourth of the large scope was under cultivation. Only along 
the water courses had clearings been made. The rest was covered by original timber 
growth of oaks and walnuts. The new master and occupant with abundant means and 
opportunities at his command was to give to everything the impress of his practical 
and progressive ideas. In time he enlarged the dwelling place to its present propor- 
tions and extended the bounds of the estate by purchasing the other 2500 acres of the 
original patent already mentioned, and other adjoining properties including Clifton 
Neck of 2000 acres, until the domain included an expanse of 8000 acres with ten miles 
of reach along tide water. 

The improvements in farm arrangements and crop cultivation which he ordered and 
had carried out by his negroes and overlookers in the course of a few years amply demon- 
strated to all who witnessed the results that he was as sensible and practical as a farmer 
as he had been in his methods of fighting the Indians. Whenever necessary he drain- 
ed the grounds, adopted the plan of rotating crops, procured the best agricultural im- 
plements then to be obtained, planted and sowed the best seeds, erected comfortable 
shelters for his overseers and hands, had his home smithy and wagon shops for the re- 
pairs of all tools, carts and wagons, his carpenters for building and repairing the farm 
building's and fences, had his grist-mill for grinding his grains, his huntsmen for pro- 
curing wild game and his fishermen for supplying everybody on the premises with fish, 
then so abundant in the river. In a word, all things on the estate were so directed as 
to best subserve the end of making the most of all existing possibilities and satisfying 
all the reasonable wants of a rural community such as was there maintained. Under 
the vigilant eye of the distinguished master everything went on with regularity and 
certainty. He carefully looked after the details of his farm operations, and being a- 
very observant man, he never in any of his journeys abroad failed to notice any new 
agricultural improvements, and was very ready always to put them into practise on his 
own acres. Bringing to his aid the knowledge he had acquired in marking out the 
boundaries in his younger days of the wilderness possessions of Lord Fairfax in the val- 
ley of the Shenandoah, with compass and chain, he himself laid off his estate into five 
main farms. The portion in the elbow of the Potomac, and between that stream and 
Little Hunting Creek, was named and known as Clifton Neck or River Farm, being 
the first of the land of the Mount Vernon estate entered by the railway going down 
from Alexandria, and consisted of about two thousand acres. Between Little Hunting 
Creek and Dogue Run, were laid off the Mansion House Farm of 1200 acres, Union 
Farm 1000 acres, Dogue Run Farm of 2000 acres, and Muddy Hole Farm of 1300 acres. 
Several of these local names are found in Washington's will, which devises the pro- 
perty east of Little Hunting Creek, to George Lafayette Washington ; about two-thirds, 
of the portion between Little Hunting Creek and Dogue Creek, lying on the Potomac, 
and including the Mansion House farm, to Bubhrod Washington; and the residue be- 
ing the southwesterly part of this tract, to Lawrence Lewis and his wife Eleanor Park 
Lewis. The soil and other natural capabilities of his estate are accurately described 
by Washington. The greater part he says is a grayish loam running to clay. Some 
parts of it are of a dark mold, some inclined to sand, scarcely any to stone. He adds, 
"A husbandman's will, could not lay the farms more level than they are." And as to 
the river, "the whole shore is one entire fishery," "and springs, with plenty of water 
for man and cattle, abound everywhere on the grounds " 

In addition to his own dwelling house and other buildings on the Mansion House 
Farm, he had, what he calls, an overlooker's house and negro quarters on each of the 
other farms. He speaks also of a newly erected brick barn, "equal, perhaps, to any in 
America," on the Union Farm, a new circular barn on Dogue Run Farm, and a grist- 
mill near the mouth of Dogue Run. Some idea of the extent of Washington's farming 
operations may be formed from the following farts. In 1787 he had five hundred and 
eighty acres in grass, four hundred acres in oats, seven hundred acres in wheat, the 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 57 

same number in corn, with several hundred acres in barley, buckwheat, potatoes, peas, 
beans and turnips. His live stock consisted of one hundred and forty horses, one 
hundred and twelve cows, two hundred and twenty-six working oxen, heifers and steers 
and five hundred sheep, and of hogs, many, almost numberless, running at large in the 
woodlands and marshes. He constantly employed two hundred and fifty hands 
(negroes), and kept a score of ploughs going during the entire year, when the earth 
and the state of the weather would permit. In 1870 he slaughtered one hundred and 
fifty hogs for the use of his family and negroes. When not called away from Mount 
Vernon by public duties, Washington rode daily over his farms in pleasant weather, 
and kept himself thoroughly acquainted with the details of everything that was going 
on from season to season over his broad acres. Every locality was mapped. Every 
branch of labor was sysiematized, and all his farming operations were in charge of 
competent overseers, who were required to regularly account to him of their steward- 
ship with exactness. 

With the passing away of the winter of 1799 passed also from earth the stately 
presence of him who gave to the home and estate of Mount Vernon all their historic 
character and importance, and endeared them for all time to the generations of his 
countrymen to come after him ; but thenceforth for many a long year, in the absence 
of the tireless care and watchful eye of the master, the fair fields were despoiled of 
their wonted fertility, and abandoned afterwards to the pine and cedar and the return- 
ing wild deer. The mansion itself and the immediate surroundings were sadly suffer- 
ing from neglect and the hands of the spoiler. 

Such was the condition of this historic domain, when in 1854 came to its occupancy, 
the vanguard of the colony of farmers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, the 
New England States and States of the West, who bought large areas of the worn-down 
but desirable lands, and commenced that work of restoration and improvement which 
has been attended with such remarkable success. 

At that time there were but three white families on the whole estate. Now, they 
number nearly fifty families, and cultivate farms varying in extent from twenty-five to 
three hundred acres, with values from fifty to five hundred dollars per acre. 

THE MOUNT VERNON ASSOCIATION. 

In the year 1856 was incorporated by the Legislature of Virginiathe "Mount Vernon 
Ladies' Association of the Union" having for its object the restoration of the "Mansion 
and grounds," and the reverential care thenceforth of everything pertaining to them. 
With this idea in view, donations were solicited from the patriotic women of the repub- 
lic, and the "Home and Tomb" with two hundred acres of the surrounding lands were 
purchased of John Augustine Washington, for the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, 
The work of obtaining the necessary funds for this laudable purpose was begun in great 
earnestness. Miss Pamelia Cunningham, of South Carolina, all honor to her name and 
services, and who by common consent had taken charge of the work, was constituted 
first regent, or manager of the association, and she appointed vice-regents in every 
State of the Union as her assistants. Edward Everett now gave his tongue and pen to 
the work. He went from city to city, like Peter the Hermit, pleading for the rescue 
of the Holy Sepulchre, delivering an oration on the character of Washington for the 
fund. Within two years from the first delivery of the oration, he paid into the treasury 
of the association fifty thousand dollars, an amount increased later to sixty-eight thou- 
sand dollars. The vice-regents each appointed State committees, and the money 
raised was nearly all in dollar subscriptions. In July, 1859, three years after the 
movement was inaugurated, and one year before all the purchase-money was paid and 
a deed given, the late proprietor allowed the work of restoration to begin — the work 
which has resulted in the admirable condition and arrangements everywhere apparent. 
And may we not indulge the hope that henceforth this place, to which every patriotic 
American turns with pride and reverence, may be safe from a relapse to the desolation 
from which it was retrieved ? 



5S SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

COL. JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON. 

THE LAST PRIVATE OWNER OF MOUNT VERNON. 

Col. John Augustine Washington was born in 1820 at Blakely, the residence of his 
father in Jefferson county, W. Va. He was married in 1842 to Eleanor Love, daughter 
of Wilson Carey Seldon. He resided at Mount Vernon until a short time before the 
civil war and until it passed into the possession of the Ladies' Association under the 
control of which it is still held. 

On the breaking out of hostilities between the States, Col. Washington became a 
volunteer aide, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of Gen'l Rob't E. Lee, and was 
killed September 13, 1861, while conducting a reconnoisance on the turnpike along 
Elk Water river, about 9 miles northwest of Huttonsville, Randolph county, W. Va. 
Col. Washington was a graduate of the University of Virginia, and was a man of fine 
natural parts as well as a gentleman of culture, of a warm, impulsive temperament and 
generous nature ; in manners and hospitality a veritable type of the Virginia gentleman. 
The following facts connected with the circumstances of his death were recently related 
to the writer by Col. J. H. Morrow, late Third regiment, Ohio volunteers, who com- 
manded a brigade of four regiments, under Gen. George B. McClellan in the West 
Virginia campaign at the time, and in whose arms Colonel Washington expired, and 
with whose permission I make this statement. The old State turnpike road ran from 
Brady's toll gate, or Brady's gap, as the point was also designated, along the valley, 
following the course of Elk Water river, and being on low ground was subject to over- 
flow from the river in seasons of high water. On this account a new pike had been 
constructed on higher ground, and on this new road, at some distance below Brady's 
gate, General Lee had established his headquarters. The bluffs on the opposite side of 
the river from the old road had been heavily picketed by Federal soldiers for several 
miles, extending from Col. Morrow's camp below, very nearly if not quite up to Brady's 
gate. Owing to the mountainous character of the surrounding country, General Lee 

was imperfectly informed of the location of the 
Federal forces, and in order to obtain reliable in- 
formation in this regard, directed Colonel Wash- 
ington, with a detachment, to proceed up the new 
road to the forks at or near Brady's gate and 
thence down the old road, cautioning him not to 
venture beyond a certain point. Washington, 
however, it appears, probably actuated by over zeal 
and anxiety to be able to report valuable infor- 
mation, went beyond the point indicated. His 
movements along the entire route on the old 
road were, it seems, fully observed by the pick- 
ets, and immediately after he finally started on 
his return a volley was delivered from the pick- 
et line and Washington was seen to fall from his 
horse, which galloped away with the retreating 
escort. He was apparently the only one strick- 
en by the volley. Colonel Morrow states that 
he was standing but a short distance from where 
Washington fell, and hurried to the spot and 
discovered him to be an officer of rank. He 
knell by him and raised him so as to enable him 
to recline against his breast, and directed one 
of his men, standing near, and who wore a felt 

COL. JOHN A. WASHINGTON. , , ' i m C ■ i . r *l 

J hat, to run and fill it with water from the stream. 

Col. Morrow bathed the wounded man's forehead and endeavored to press 
water between his lips from a saturated handkerchief; but he could not swallow, as 
blood was flowing from his mouth and nose, and in a few minutes later he was dead. 




OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 59, 

THE RECEPTION OR BANQUET HALL. 

This is the laigest apartment in the Mansion, running through its entire width. Its 
spacious ceiling and deep cornice are richly ornamented with delicate stem and leaf 
tracery and other devices in stucco of low relief. It has a superb chimney piece of 
fine marble, carved by the Italian Sculptor Canova, the gift of a wealthy Englishman 
and a great admirer of Washington. Upon the three tablets of the frieze under the 
mantel are sculptured in high relief in white marble, pleasant domestic scenes in agri- 
cultural life. The immense grate underneath has a capacity for a large pile of fuel. 
The hearth is of white marble inlaid with ornaments of polished maroon colored tiles. 
The whole presents a most pleasing picture to the eye. The dark blue vases upon the 
mantel covered with paintings of flowers, and the bronze candelabra on each end occu- 
pied the same places when the first proprietor received his guests in this Hall. 

In pleasing array on the walls is an equestrian painting of Washington and his staff 
at Yorktown in 1781, painted by Peale. A portrait of Washington by Stuart, repre- 
senting him in military uniform at the age of forty-five. Pictures in oil and water 
colors of old ancestral places in England. 

There are engraved portraits of all the continental generals, numerous autograph let- 
ters and other mementos of olden time and historic value. Here too may be seen a 
model of the Bastile, the notable state prison in Paris, which was demolished by the 
infuriated populace in 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution. Lafayette 
was at that time commander-in-chief of the National Guards and ordered and assisted 
in the destruction of the prison, which was regarded by the populace as the stronghold 
of tyranny. The great iron key to its dungeon was presented by Lafayette to Wash- 
ington. 

In this apartment Major Lawrence Lewis and Miss Nellis Custis were married in the 
presence of General and Mrs. Martha Washington and a large assemblage of their 
neighbors and friends on the 22nd day of February, 1799. The notable event took 
place at "early candle lighting," so we are told by the General in his diary, with 
ceremonies and display of dress, equipage and festivities the most ostentatious of any 
which had ever been known in any Virginia home. 

The bride and groom had both been of the General's household from very early 
years and both had always been the recipients of his favoring love and solicitude; and 
in this the crowning event, as the nuptial alliance was particularly pleasing to him, his 
orderings for the occasion of the wedding were most liberal and bountiful. 

For years afterward in many a home by the Potomac the neighborhood folk who 
were guests that night at the Mansion of the First President delighted to tell to the 
younger generations of the "grand" sights and personages of the occasion — of the 
stately appearance of Washington and Mrs. Washington as they received the guests — of 
the charming debonair* of beautiful Nellie and her handsome soldier affiance in his buff 
and blue lace, who had won credit on the staff of the renowned General Morgan. 

DESCENT OF THE MOUNT VERNON HOME. 

Judge Bushrod Washington who inherited on the death of Martha Washington in 
1802 about 4000 acres of the Mount Vernon estate, was the third child of John Augus- 
tine Washington, a younger brother of George Washington, born 1762. His mother 
was Hannah Bushrod of Westmoreland Co., Va. Judge Washington was an associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and resided at Mount Vernon, dis- 
pensing a liberal hospitality and keeping intact his inherited landed estate to the time 
of his death in 1829. He was married in 1785 to Anna, daughter of Colonel Thomas 
Blackburn, of Rippon Lodge, Prince William county, Va. They had no children. 
He made a will, and following the example of his illustrious uncle, he provided for his 
wife during her life and then disposed of his estate to his nephews and neices, giving 
specific directions, and leaving the Mansion House and Mount Vernon farm proper, 
with restricted bounds, which he specifically defined, to his nephew, John Augustine 



GO 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



Washington and which was inherited by his son John Augustine, from whom the 
"Ladies' Association" purchased the home and two hundred acres in 1856 for $200,000. 
Under this purchase and their Virginia charter, they hold the premises, keep them in 
order and make all regulations for the admission of visitors to the sacred precincts. 
The regent and the vice-regents of the Association, one from each state meet annually 
at the Mansion for the transaction of business relating to their important charge, and 
their sessions are held in the great Banquet Hall. 

On every part of the premises is bestowed through their management and solicitude a 
care and watchfulness from day to day, and from year to year which command the ap- 
probation of all visitors. 

The whole interior of the house in its orderly arrangements of the many attractive ob- 
jects is a study and a delight for the curious and appreciative as well as patriotic visitors. 

For the reverential pilgrim as he passes from apartment to apartment there is a feel- 
ing which brings forcibly to mind and makes almost real the fancied presence of the 
departed master whose dust lies entombed so near. 

Surely no home in the wide world ever had surroundings of landscapes fraught with 
more peaceful and quiet beauty. 

"Ever charming, ever new, 
Tiring never to the view." 

The numerous apartments of the Home known as the West Parlor, Music room, Mrs. 
Washington's sitting room, River room, Banquet Hall, Library, Washington's room, 
Lafayette's room, Mrs. Washington's room, and Nellie Custis' room are each tastefully 
furnished in antique styles and fashions, and many articles of the furniture belonged 
there in the time of the first president. After his death in 1779 they were widely scat- 
tered but by donation of or purchase from their new possessors from time to time they 
have been restored to their old places. All the furniture of the Library room is 
original. 




POHICK CHURCH OF TRURO PARISH. 

Six miles below the Mount Vernon Mansion and four miles from the Potomac stands 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. Gl 

the Old Pohick Church, the second building of the parish, erected in the year of 1772. 
The first edifice was erected about the year 1732 but stood where now stands Lewis 
Chapel. The present house was built from plans furnished by Washington who was a 
member of its vestry and a frequent attendant at its services. The eccentric Mason 
L. Weems though not one of its rectors regularly ordained by the bishop of London, 
often preached there before 1800. The picture represents an old time congregation 
after service. Davis, an English traveler who passed much of his time in the neighbor- 
hood about 1800, published a book of his observations which he inscribed to Thomas 
Jefferson. He was a teacher in the family of Thomas Ellicott, a quaker, and proprietor 
of the first flour mill on the Occoquan. In this book he thus describes a visit to the 
ancient parish church. "I rode to Pohick on Sunday and joined the congregation of 
parson Weems, a minister of the Episcopal Church, who was cheerful in his mien that 
he might win men to religion. A Virginia Church yard on a Sunday resembles rather 
a race course than a sepulchral ground. The ladies come to it in carriages and the 
men after dismounting make fast their horses to the trees, I was astounded on entering 
the yard to hear 'steed threaten steed with high and boastful neigh.' Nor was I less 
stunned by the rattling of carriage wheels and the cracking of whips and the vocifera- 
tions of the gentry to the negroes who accompanied them. But the discourse of Mr. 
Weems calmed every perturbation, for he preached the great doctrine of salvation as 
one who had fell its power." 

Parson Weems was the author of a life of Washington, a book abounding in many 
curious and quaint descriptions which set all the established canons of criticism and 
rules of taste at utter defiance. Weems first of all others in his little book related the 
oft heard story of the "little hatchet." He little thought when the story shaped itself 
in his imagination, that it was to descend to posterity and be ground into the heads of 
children in the nursery, as a piece of immortal and instructive truth. The remains of 
the eccentric parson, book peddler and fiddler are in the old family burying ground of 
Bell Air, not far from Dumfries. Since the civil war, by the munificence of various in- 
dividuals, the old church has been restored to its original appearance and condition, 
and regular service is held within its walls. 

INAUGURATION OFWASHINGTON AS FIRST PRESIDENT OF 
THE UNITED STATES. 

"It would seem, from all we have learned of Washington's early and later career, 
that Providence had specially appointed him by birth and education to be the leader 
and director in the Western world, of the revolution which was to open the way for 
the founding there of a new and free English speaking nation. Every factor, whether 
of lineage or culture in his admirably balanced, character, as well as every aspiration 
of his heart from his cradle to his grave is of exceeding great interest to the world. 
Although deprived of a father's care at the age of eleven years, he was, however espec- 
ially blest in having such a mother as the noble Mary Washington, who conscientiously 
discharged her sacred duty as his guardian, counsellor, and friend. Hence, filial rev- 
erence grew with his growth and strengthened with his maturing years into fixed prin- 
ciples, making him throughout his eventful life loyal to every virtue and heroic in every 
trust. He seems to have had no idle boy life, but was a man with manly instincts and 
ambitions from his youth. There came a sunshiny day in April, 1789, when George 
Washington, President-elect of the United States by the unanimous voice of the people, 
stood on the balcony in front of the Senate Chamber in the Old Federal Hall on Wall 
street to take the oath of office. An immense multitude filled the streets and the win- 
dows and roofs of the adjoining houses. Clad in a suit of dark brown cloth of Ameri- 
can manufacture, with hair powdered, and with white silk stockings, silver shoe buckles, 
and steel-hilted dress sword, the hero who had led the colonies to their independence 
came modestly forward to take up the burdens that peace had brought. Profound si- 
lence fell upon the multitude as Washington responded solemnly to the reading of the 
oath of office, " I swear — so help me, God." 

Then, amid cheers, the display of flags, and the ringing of all the bells in the city, 



62 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



our first President turned to face the duties his country had imposed upon him. In 
sight of those who would have made an idol of him, Washington's first act was to seek 
aid of other strength than his own. In the calm sunshine of that April afternoon, frag- 
rant with the presence of seed-time and the promise of harvest, we leave him on his 
knees in Old St. Paul's bowed with the simplicity of a child at the feet of the Supreme 
Ruler of the Universe. 

MARY, THE MOTHER. 

William Ball the first immigrant of the name and family to Virginia came to the bor- 
ders ot the Rappahannock river in Lancaster county and established the plantation of 
Millenback. Capt. Joseph, his son, became possessor of the plantation of "Epping 
Forest" in the same neighborhood. He was married in 1675 to Elizabeth Romney. 
By her he had five children, Joseph, Elizabeth married to Rev. John Carnegie, Han- 




Incur] J3cJ£ 

MOTHER OF WASHINGTON. 



Courtesy of Air. Henry Dudley Teetor. 

nah married to Raleigh Travers, Anne married to Col. Edward Conway, and Esther 
married to Raleigh Chinn. About 1707 or 8 his wife died and he married a second 
time to the widow Mary Johnson by whom he had one daughter Mary, who from her 
comeliness was called the rose of Epping Forest. Mary lost her father before she was 
five years old. Her mother was again married for the third time to Capt. Richard 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 63 

Hewes whose home was at Sandy Point near the mouth of Yeocomico river in the 
county ot Northumberland. Here in all probability young Mary Ball passed the most 
of her single years with her mother, and in companionship with her half sister Eliza- 
beth Johnson until March 6, 1730, when she became the wife of Capt. Augustine 
Washington of Wakefield, Westmoreland county, Va. He died in 1743. His widow 
Mary remained on the Wakefield homestead until 1775, when at her son George's re- 
quest she came up to Fredericksburg where she could be very near to her daughter Betty 
Lewis, wife of Col. Fielding Lewis. 

As time passed, her children and grand children made her frequent visits and had 
care that she wanted for nothing to add to her comfort. The General had repeatedly 
urged her to make Mount Vernon her home but she always declined his requests. 

She passed away Aug. 25, 1789. A granite obelisk 50 feet high with the simple in- 
scription "Mary, the Mother of Washington" was furnished and dedicated to her 
memory, near her home in 1894. At the dedication of the monument it was said : 

"You have reared this beautiful obelisk to one who was 'the light of the dwelling' in 
a plain rural colonial home. Her history hovers around it. She was wife, mother, and 
widow. She nursed a hero at her breast. At her knee she trained to the love and 
fear of God and to the kindly virtues, — honor, truth, and valor, the lion of the tribe 
that gave to America liberty and independence. This is her title to renown. It is 
enough. 

"Eternal dignity and heavenly grace dwell upon the brow of this blessed mother ; nor 
burnished gold nor sculptured stone nor rhythmic praise could add one jot or tittle to 
her chaste glory. She was simply a private citizen. No sovereign's crown rested on 
her brow. She did not lead an army, like Joan of Arc, nor slay a tyrant, like Charlotte 
Corday. She was not versed in letters nor in arts. She was not an angel of mercy, like 
Florence Nightingale, nor the consort of a hero, like the mother ot Napoleon. But for 
the light that streamed from the deeds of him she bore, we would doubtless have never 
heard the name of Mary Washington, and the grass upon this grave had not been dis- 
turbed by curious footsteps or reverential hands." — DanieVs Oration. 

MARY WASHINGTON. 
The Rappahannock ran in the reign of good Queen Anne, 

All townless from the mountains to the sea, 
Old Jamestown was forlorn and King Williamsburg scarce born — 

'Twas the year of Blenheim's victory, 
Whose trumpets died away in far Virginia. 

In the cabin of an old tobacco farm, 
Where a planter's little wife to a little girl gave life, 
And the fire in the chimney made it warm. 

It was little Mary Ball, and she had no fame at all, 

But the world was all the same as if she had ; 
For she had the right to breathe and to tottle and to teethe, 

And to love some other cunning little lad ; 
Though he proved a widower, it was all the same to her, 

For he gave her many a daughter and a son, 
And the family was large and the oldest, little George, 

Was the hope of little Widow Washington. 

The name resounded not in time we have forgot, 

It was nothing more than Smith or Jones or Ball ; 
And George's big half brothers had the call on their stepmother's 

Affection, like the babes of her own stall ; 
They paid the larger taxes, and the Ayletts and Fairfaxes 

Received them in their families and lands, 
While the widow thought upon it, she rode in her sunbonnet, 

Midst her slaves who tilled her gulleys and her sands. 

Till they sought to take her George upon the royal barge, 

And give him a commission and a crest, 
When her heart cried out, "O, no ! Something says he must not go : 

My first-born is a father to the rest." 
She could find him little schooling, but be did not learn much fooling, 



6 I SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

And he dragged the mountain e'er with chain and rod, 
The I Hue Ridge was his cover and the Indian his lover 
And Ids duty was his Sovereign and God. 

•Still her rival in his heart was the military art, 

And the epaulettes she dreaded still were there, 
There are households still where glory is a broken-hearted story, 

And the drum is a mockery and snare. 
From the far off Barbadoes, from the yell of Frenchmen foes, 

From t'ne ghost of Braddock's unavailing strife, 
She beheld her boy return and his bridal candles burn, 

And a widow like herself became his wife. 

By Potomac's pleasant tide he was settled with his bride, 

Overseeing horses, hounds and cocks and wards, 
And it seemed but second nature to go to the legislature 

And play his hand at politics and cards. 
Threescore and ten had come when the widow heard the drum. 

"My God !" she cried, "what demon is at large ?" 
'Tis the conflict with the king, 'tis two world's mustering, 

And the call of Duty comes to mother's George. 

"O war ! To plague me so ! Must my first-born ever go!" 

Her answer is the bugle and the gun. 
The town fills up agnin with the horse of Mercer's men, 

And the name they call aloud is Washington. 
In the long, distracting years none may count the widow's tears: 

She is banished o'er the mountains from her farm ; 
She is old and lives with strangers, while ride wide the king's red rangers, 

And the only word is "Arm !" and "Arm ! and "Arm !" 

"Come home and see your son, the immortal Washington, 

He has beat the king and mighty Cornwallis !" 
They crowd her little door and she sees her boy once more ; 

Rut there is no glory in him like his kiss. 
The marijiiiscs and dukes, in their orders and perukes, 

The aides-de-camp, the generals and all, 
Stand by to see and listen how her aged eyes will glisten 

To hear from him the tale of Yorktown's fall. 

Upon that, her lips are dumb to the trumpet and the drum ; 

All their pageantry is vanity and stuff. 
So lie leans upon her breast, she cares nothing for the rest — 

It is he and that is victory enough ! 
In the life that mothers give, is their thirst that man shall live 

And tlie species never lose the legacy. 
To live again on earth and repeat the wondrous birth — 

That is glory — that is immortality. 

Unto Fredericksburg at last, when her fourscore years are past, 

Now gray himself, he rides all night to say : 
"Madame — mother — ere I go to become the President 

I have come to kiss you till another day." 
"No, George ; the sight of thee, which I can hardly see, 

Is all for all — good-by ; I can be brave. 
Fulfill your great career as I have fulfilled my sphere; 

My station can be nothing but the grave." 
The mother's love sank down, and its sunset on his crown 

Shone like the dying beams of perfect day ; 
He has none like her to mix in the draught of politics 

The balm that softens injury away. 
Put he was his mother's son till his weary race was done ; 

I [er gravity, her peace, her golden mien 
Shed on the state the good of her sterling womanhood, 

And like her own, was George's closing scene. 

George Alfred Townscnd. 

When Mary Washington died, August 25, 1789, aged eighty-three years, her body 
was buried on the spot chosen by herself on the home plantation, Kenmore, on the Rappa- 
hannock. It was a favorite place of resort during the last years of her life, on a beau- 
tiful eminence overlooking the town in which so much of her life was passed, and 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 65 

within sight of her own house and that of her daughter, Betty Lewis. It is a lovely- 
spot, in a large field, not far from the peaceful Rappahannock, with the famous 
Marye Heights as a background, a pretty clump of cottonwood trees surrounding the 
lonely grave. The view in every direction from this spot is at once beautiful and in- 
spiring. Small wonder is it that the woman, who appreciated everything in nature 
that led the soul to nobler and better thoughts should have loved this spot in life and 
preferred it as a final resting place to the darkness of the family vault in Westmoreland 
county, where the body of her husband was laid. 

WASHINGTON'S HABITS, MANNERS AND APPEARANCE. 

The work which Washington accomplished in the course of his public and private du- 
ties was simply immense. And when we estimate the volumn of his official papers — his 
vast foreign, public and private correspondence — we can scarcely believe that the space 
of one man's life could have comprehended the performance of so many varied things. 
But he brought order, method and rigid system to help him. These accessories he re- 
lied on, and they led him successfully through. He rose early. His toilet was soon 
made. A single servant prepared his clothes and laid them in readiness. He shaved 
and dressed himself, but gave very little of his precious time to matters of that sort, 
though remarkable for the neatness and propriety of his apparel. His clothes were 
made after the old fashioned cut, of the best, though of the plainest materials. The 
style of his household and equipage when President corresponded with the dignity of 
his exalted station. About sunrise he invariably visited and inspected the stables. 
Then he betook himself to his library till the hour of breakfast. This meal was plain 
and simple, and with but little change from time to time. Indian cakes, honey, and 
tea formed this temperate repast. On rising from the table, if there were guests, and 
it was seldom otherwise, books and papers were offered for their amusement, and re- 
questing them to lake care of themselves, the illustrious farmer proceeded to his daily 
tour over his farms which sometimes extended a score of miles. He rode unattended 
by servants, opening the gates, letting down and putting up bars as he visited his la- 
borers and inspected their work. Oftentimes when his adopted daughter, Nellie Cus- 
tis, had grown up, she accompanied him in his rounds. 

Washington was a progressive farmer and introduced many new methods in the til- 
lage of his lands. His afternoon was usually devoted to his library; at night, his la- 
bors over, he would join his family and friends at the tea-table and enjoy their so- 
ciety for several hours, and about nine o'clock retired to bed. When without com- 
pany he frequently read aloud to his family circle from newspapers and entertaining 
books. 

Washington liked the cheerful converse of the social board. After his retirement 
from public life, all the time he could spare from his library was devoted to the im- 
provement of his estate and the elegant and tasteful arrangement of his house and 
grounds. The awe that was felt by every one upon the first approach to Washington 
evidences the imposing air and sublimity which belong to real greatness. Even the 
frequenters of the courts of princes were sensible of this exalted feeling when in the 
presence of the hero, who, formed for the highest destinies, bore an impress from na- 
ture which declared him to be among the noblest of her works. 

Washington at the age of forty-three was appointed commander-in-chief. In stature 
he a little exceeded six feet ; his limbs were sinewy and well-proportioned ■ his chest 
broad ; his figure stately, blending dignity of presence with ease.* His robust consti- 
tution had been tried and invigorated by his early life in the wilderness, his habits of 
occupations out-of-doors, and his rigid temperance ; so that few equalled him in strength 
of arms or power of endurance. His complexion was florid ; his hair dark brown ■ his 
head in its shape perfectly round. His broad nostrils seemed formed to give expression 
and escape to scornful anger. His dark blue eyes, which were deeply set, had an ex- 
pression of resignation, and an earnestnss that was almost sadness. 

THE FIRST CELEBRATION OF THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL 

CONSTITUTION 

It is remarkable that the first report of a celebration in Alexandria in anyway con- 



66 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

nected with national affairs was reported by no less a hand than that of General George 
Washington. When the news reached that city that the requisite nine States had ac- 
ceded to the Federal Constitution, the people of Alexandria immediately ordered a 
festival, and Washington, after attending it, addressed his friend, Charles Pinckney, 
under date of Mount Vernon, June 28, 1788, as follows : 

"No sooner had the citizens of Alexandria, who are Federal to a man, received the 
intelligence by the mail last night, than they determined to devote the day to festivity. 
But their exhilaration was greatly increased, and a much keener zest given to their en- 
joyments, by the arrival of an express, two hours before day, with the news that the 
Convention of New Hampshire, had on the 21st instant, acceded to the new confed- 
eracy by a majority of eleven voices. Thus the citizens of Alexandria when convened, 
constituted the first assembly in America who had the pleasure of pouring a libation to 
the prosperity of the ten Slates which had already adopted the general government ;" 
and, after speculating upon the course of the remaining States, he added: "I have just 
returned from assisting at the entertainment." These citizens had a dinner at the 
City Hotel, which is still standing. 

LIEUTENANT GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

In 1798 during the war between France and England in the administration of 
President John Adams, the French government had authorized the capture and confis- 
cation of all vessels of neutral powers trading with England. Against this course the 
protests and demands of the United Stales through its envoys were treated with indif- 
ference and even insolence, provoking to the commencement of hostilities by two 
naval engagements. In the extraordinary crisis, Congress then in session in Philadel- 
phia authorized the enrolling of 10,000 officers, musicians and privates to enforce its 
demands if necessary by actual war and George Washington was appointed and com- 
missioned July 3, 1798, Lieutenant General to command the provisional army. Happily 
however, the threatened conflict was averted, mainly through the personal intervention 
of Dr. George Logan, a United States Senator, and a member of the society of Friends. 
His peaceful and philanthropic influence with the French Court prevailed against its 
arbitrary measures, but his unofficial interference cost him a reprimand from Congress. 

THE PASSING AWAY OF WASHINGTON. 

"How sleep the brave who sink to rest 
With all their country's honors blest." 

There came to Mount Vernon a bleak, forbidding winter day, December 14, 1799. 
Washington was engaged in planning and superintending some improvements on his 
estate which occupied his presence till a late hour in the evening, when, on returning 
to the mansion, he complained of a cold and sore throat, having been wet through by 
mists and chilling rain. He passed the night with feverish excitement, and his ailment 
increased in intensity during the next day and until midnight, when, surrounded by his 
sorrowing household and the medical attendant, he passed gently and serenely from 
the scenes of earth to the realities of the great unknown. He was in the sixty-eighth 
year of his age. His faculties were strong and unimpaired to the last. He was conscious 
from the first of his malady, that his end was near, and he waited for the issue with 
great composure and self-possession. "I am going," he observed to those around him 
"But I have no fears," His mission had been well and nobly accomplished. His 
great life-work, whose influence will reach to the remotest period of time, was accom- 
plished. 

At the supreme moment Mrs. Washington sat in silent grief at his bedside. "Is he 
gone?" she asked in a firm and collected voice. The physician, unable to speak, gave 
a silent signal of assent. "'Tis well," she added in the same untremulous utterance : 
"all is over now. I shall soon follow him ; I have no more trials to pass through." 
She followed three years later. They both rest side by side in the new burial vault at 
the old homestead by the river. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 67 

The following quaint announcements of Washington's death from the newspapers of 
this locality will be of interest : 

The Georgetown Ceatincl of Liberty, a semi-weekly, in its issue of December 17, 
1799, thus announces to the country and the world the death of General George Wash- 
ington. "This mournful event occurred on Saturday evening about eleven o'clock. 
On the preceding night he was attacked with a violent inflammatory affection of the 
throat, which in less than twenty- four hours put a period to his life. If a long life de- 
voted to the most important public services ; if the most eminent usefulness, true great- 
ness, and consummate glory ; it being an honor to our race and a model to future ages ; 
if all these could rationally suppress our grief, never perhaps ought we to mourn so 
little. But as they are most powerful motives to gratirude, attachment, and venera- 
tion for the living and of sorrow at their departure, never ought America and the 
world to mourn more than on this melancholy occasion." 

The Alexandria Times and District of Columbia Advertiser, of Friday, December 20, 
1799, of which one half sheet is all that is known to be in existence, thus announced 
Washington's death and funeral : "The effect of the sudden news of his death upon 
the inhabitants of Alexandria can better be conceived than expressed. At first a gen- 
eral disorder, wildness, and consternation pervaded the town. The tale appeared as 
an illusory dream, as the raving of a sickly imagination. But these impressions soon 
gave place to sensations of the most poignant sorrow and extreme regret. On Monday 
and Wednesday the stores were all closed and all business suspended, as if each family 
had lost its father. From the time of his death to the time of his interment the bells 
continued to toll, the shipping in the harbor wore their colors half mast high, and 
every public expression of grief was observed. On Wednesday, the inhabitants of the 
town, of the county, and the adjacent parts of Maryland proceeded to Mount Vernon 
to perform the last offices to the body of their illustrious neighbor. All the military 
within a considerable distance and three Masonic lodges were present. The concourse 
of people was immense. Till the time of interment the corpse was placed on the por- 
tico fronting the river, that every citizen might have an opportunity of taking a last 
farewell of the departed benefactor." 

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY AND BIRTHNIGHT BALL. 
February 22, 1732. 

What day is this of proud acclaim, The plaudits of a nation swell 

Of rolling drum and trumpet strain, O'er mountain, hill, and plain. 

And banners floating on the breeze, 

And cannon booming loud again ? Not for ambition's selfish deeds— 

Not for the conq'ror's name, 
A people come with grateful praise, This day the glorious mede is given, 

And hearts in unison, But for the nobler fame, 

As well befits to celebrate 

Tbe birth of Washington ! B y man world wide accorded 

And grander gtown by time — 
From East and West and North and South, The fame that comes of duty 

Throughout our broad domain, And life of deeds sublime. 

At the close of the Revolution commenced the birthday celebrations and birthnight 
balls in honor of the successful chief. They soon became general all over the republic. 
The first of these was held in Alexandria. 

In the large cities where public balls were customary, the birthnight ball in the old- 
en time was the gala assembly of the season, and was attended by an array of fashion 
and beauty. 

The first President always attended on the birthnight. The etiquette was, not to 
open the festivities until the arrival of him in whose honor it was given ; but so remark- 
able was the punctuality of Washington in all his engagements, whether for businesss or 
pleasure, that he was never waited for a moment, in appointments for either. 

The minuet, now obsolete, for the graceful and elegant dancing of which Wash- 
ton was conspicuous, in the vice-regal days of Lord Botetourt in Virginia, declined 



68 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



after the Revolution. The commander-in-chief danced for his last time a minuet in 
1781 at the ball given in Fredericksburg in honor of the French and American officers 
on their return from the triumphs of Yorktown. The last birthnighi he attended was 
in Alexandria, February 22, 1798. He always appeared to enjoy the gay and festive 
scenes of those occasions, remaining till a late hour with the participants, his neighbors 
and friends ; for, remarkable as he was for reserve, and the dignified gravity inseparable 
from his nature, he ever looked with most kind and favoring eye upon this rational and 
elegant pleasure of life. 

MARTHA DANDRIDGE. 




Martha Dandridge, daughter of Col. John 
Dandridge of New Kent county, Va., was born 
May, 1732. Her education was quite liberal 
for the times. It was said she was remarkable 
among the belles who graced the courts cf the 
Vice regal governors, Gooche and Dinwiddie, 
for her beauty and accomplishments. She was 
married first to Col. Daniel Parke Custis of 
Arlington, on the eastern shore oi Virginia who 
was son of John Custisone of the King's council 
in the province and son-in-law of Col. Daniel 
Parke, a native of York county, Va., where he 
possessed large estates but spent most of his time 
in England. He was a favorite aide to the 
Duke of Marlborough in the battle of Blenheim, 
Germany, which was fought on the second of 
August, 1704. Marlborough commanded the 
English troops and Marshall Tallard those 
of France and Bavaria. Tallarrl was defeated 
and slain with a loss of 27000 slain 3nd 13000 
made prisoners. By this victory the electo- 
rate of Bavaria became the prize of the victors. 
Col. Parke had the honor of bearing the joyful 
tidings to Queen Anne who gave him her min- 
iature portrait set in diamonds, a thousand 
pounds sterling and made him governor of the Leeward Island. His portrait as de- 
lineated by the artist Kneeler is that of a courtly gentleman with coat of crimson velvet 
embroidered with gold, a waistcoat of silver gray fabric with richly wrought figures of 
gold, and sash of gteen silk and gold. 

Daniel Parke Custis at the time of his marriage with Mattha Dandridge was an ex- 
tensive tobacco planter in New Kent county on the Pamunkey river. He died at 
the age of thirty leaving his widow a large fortune in lands, slaves and currency. She 
did not remain a widow long. About two years after her husband's death she made 
the acquaintance of Col. George Washington whose praise on account of his recent ex- 
ploits, was on all lips, and they were united in marriage January 6th. 1759, f° l]r >' ears 
after the Braddock war. She brought to her second husband beside a large land es- 
tate, thirty thousand pounds in cash, consisting of certificates of deposit in the bank of 
England. Three months after the marriage of the twain, they took up their abode 
at Mount Vernon and there continued to live the rest of their lives. 

The marriage nuptials were celebrated in the little parlor chamber near the White 
House, the home of the widow Custis on Pamunkey river. The gay governor of the 
provinces was gorgeously arrayed in scarlet and gold. Col. Washington was all glorious 
in a costume of blue and silver with scarlet trimmings and with gold buckles on his 
knees and on his shoes. The bride wore silk and satin brocade and laces. She had 
pearl ear drops and pearls about her neck. There was plenty of good eating and drink- 
ing in conformity with old time Virginia hospitality. 



WIDOW MARTHA CUSTIS AT 30. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



69 




WHEN MARTHA WASHINGTON WAS 
EIGHT YEARS OLD. 

Courtesy of Col. Henry T. Chapman, New York City. 



The last surviving child of Mrs. Washington 
by her first marriage was appointed colonel to 
Gen. Washington and made an aide on his staff. 
On the march to Yorktown he was seized with 
camp fever and died shortly after. He left four 
children, Elizabeth, born Aug., 1776. Martha, 
born Dec, 1777, Eleanor, born March, 1779, 
George W. Parke Custis, born April, 1781. 
Elizabeth was married to Thomas Law who was 
secretary to Warren Hastings in India and who 
bought a large scope of land and with others built 
many houses in Washington just after it became 
the National Capital. Martha was married to 
Thomas Peters. Eleanor was married to Major 
Lawrence Lewis, son of Fielding Lewis and Betty, a 
sister of George Washington, and George W. Parke 
Custis was married to Mary Lee Fhzhugh whom he 
sirvived. His only daughter Mary was married to 
Capt. Robert E. Lee of Confederate fame. 

During Washington's absence from Mount Vernon while 
in command of the armies of the revolution, Mrs. Washing- 
ton was often with him. During the winter at Valley Forge 
she shared the privations of the officers and ministered faith- 
fully to the sick and wounded of the troops. She survived 
the General two and a half years, dying at Mount Vernon 
May, 1S02, and her remains lie in the vault at that place. 




MARTHA WASHINGTON AT 50. 



70 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



What Martha Washington Needed the First Year of her Marriage. 
Ordered from London by Col. Washington, 1759. 



The following is an exact copy of this memoranda, 
which is curiously quaint : 



Cap, handkerchief and tucker. 

1 Fine lawn aprons. 

2 Double handkerchiefs. 
2 l'airs white silk hose. 
6 Pairs fine cotton hose. 
4 l'airs thread hose. 

I Pair of black satin shoes of the smallest 

fives 

I Pair of white satin shoes. 

I Pair calamanco shoes. 

i Fashionable hat or bonnet. 

6 Pairs of kid gloves. 

6 Pairs of mits. 

6 Breast knots. 



I Dozen silk stay laces, 

i Black mask. 

1 Dozen fashionable cambric handkerchiefs. 

2 Pairs neat small scissors. 
I Pound of sewing silk. 

I Box of real minikcn pins and hair pins. 

4 Pieces of tape. 

6 Pounds of perfumed powder. 

I Piece narrow white satin ribbon. 

I Tuckered petticoat of a fashionable color. 

1 Silver tabby petticoat. 

2 1 laudsome breast flowers. 
9 Pounds of sugar candy, 

So Maitha used perfumed powder, breast knots, 

silken hose, and satin shoes like any modern lady 
who makes the slightest pretentions to fine dressing. 



WASHINGTON'S SERVANTS. 

Just before the war it was not uncommon to read in the newspapers the announce- 
ment of the death of "''another of Washington's Servants. Then almost every octo- 
genarian darkey in "Old Fawfax" claimed to have belonged to "Mars Joge," and 
could tell wonderful stories of old times at Mount Vernon. But of late no mention has 
been made of these worthies. All of them have passed over the borders and joined 
the ranks of the plantation armies beyond. 

To the latest generation the descendants of the slave families of the Mount Vernon 
estate have great pride in telling that they are ''some of dat breed." In this connec- 
tion we cannot refrain from giving to the reader the ballad of "Thornton Gray," one 
of "de old sarvents" whom the writer once interviewed, and who was reputed to have 
been an offshoot of African royalty. 




'• ' I ; 






tj/A- 



THORNTON GRAY, ONE OF WASHINGTON'S "SARVENTS. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



71 



He was an ancient colored man, 

His age one hundred ten ; 
He hailed from old Virginny, 
And once a slave had been. 

■His hair was thin and silver'd, 

His brow with furrows set, 

Features fine cut and moulded, 

And face as black as jet. 

In olden times, the story ran, 

That kings and noblemen, 
In Afric's sultry climate, 

His forefathers had been ; 

And as I gazed upon him, 
And closely scann'd his mien, 

It seemed a trace of royalty 
Full well might yet be seen. 

He bow'd him low and tip'd his hat, 

And laid aside his hoe, 
The while I briefly interviewed 

About the long ago. 

"My name is Thornton Gray," he said 

""Dey calls me 'Uncle Thorn,' 
Lived mos'ly in Old Fairfax, 
In Wes'mo'land was born. 

"Was ris by Mars' Wilkers'n ; 

Great farmer, may depend ; 
Own'd all de big plantation 

Dey call'd de River Bend.' 

"Made heaps of fine tabacca, 
Had stores of corn and wheat ; 

Hard labor, mind you ; but de ban's 
Had plenty den to eat. 

"Times aint de same as den dey was ; 

'Pears like dey'scbang'd all round ; 
De folks dat lived when 1 was young, 

All dead and under ground. 

" 'Taint long I knows for me to stay 

Here after all de res' ; 
I only waits de Lord's good time, 

Sho'ly he knows de bes'. 

"I soon shall yhear de trumpeter 
Blow on his trumpet horn, 



An' call me home to glory, 
An' de riserickshum morn." 

My good freed man, to him I said, 

Of age, one hundred ten, 
You might relate much history 

Of former times and men. 

I wait to hear the story, 

Which none can tell but you, 

For none have lived five score of years 
And ten more added to. 

You must have seen the Britishers, 
And heard the cannons roar ; 

"Why bless you, chil', was mos' a man, 
And heard and seen de war." 

And Washington, you must have seen, 

That great and good hero, 
Who led the Continentalers ' 

And fought our battles through. 

"Why surely I has seen him, 

And know'd him well : for, boss, 

I was de Gineral's sarvent; 
Took care de Gineral's hoss! 

Fine man he was for sartin, 
Good friend to all de poor — 

Dar's none in dese days like him, 
And none, folks said, before." 

Enough, I said ! I'm well repaid ; 

And grasped his trembling hand — 
No honor hath a man like this, 

In all our glorious land ! 

No further did I question him 

About the long ago. 
And when I said to him good-by, 

He took his garden hoe. 

Who hath beheld our Washington, 

And lived to tell us so, 
Deserves as well a story 

As many others do. 

And hence our homely ballad, 

A tribute slight to pay 
To this departed colored man, 

And ancient — Thornton Gray. 



The James, the York, the Rappahannock and the Potomac flow from the Blue Ridge 
and the Alleghanies through their rich and lovely valleys and mingle with Atlantic 
waves and form the Chesapeake, .vhich seems a sea of diamonds with its phosphores- 
cent lights scintillating under the twinkling stars. Virginia has nearly 2000 miles of 
navigable tide waters, abounding in fish and oysters and other luxuries of the sea. 

Along these beautiful valleys are some grand old mansions and magnificent planta- 
tions. At the gate of one of these old homes, we saw not long ago a relic of a past 
age — an old decrepit darkey, leaning against the fence looking with sad and wistful 
eyes over the broad fields and beautiful grounds. Years had passed since I had been 
in this part of old Virginia, and I had no idea of meeting any one I knew. He came 
to me with feeble steps and bent form ; and as he looked back through the years of long 
separation he called me to memory and through streaming tears, said : "Lord, 
Massa, has you come back to de old home agin ater so many long years ?" It was old 
uncle Ephraim. I asked what he was doing there. "Laws, chil', I was just looking 




SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



"IT WAS OLD UNCLE EPHRIAM." 




"UNCLE JOE AND AUNT DORCUS 
DEY DANCED DE JIG." 



ober de old place once more; old Mistis and old Marster lies yonder in de garden, and 
all de young foks done gone way off. I is de las one ob de old plantation stock lef. 
I was thinking ob dem big old corn shuckings we uster have in old Marster's time, 
when I was de foreman on de plantation. Ah! dem was grand times befo de war! 
Big corn shuckings all de fall, plenty good things, wind up wid a great big supper, 
and den old Uncle Joe and Aunt Dorcus dey danced de jig for de white folks. Laws, 
chile, dem was good old times befo de war! Possums ain't fat nor taters ain't sweet 
and juicy now like dey was in dem good old days befo de war." 




'DAR COM MARS WASH NGTON. RUN CHIL AN OPEN DE GATE. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 
WASHINGTON'S BARN. 



i6 



Washington had an inventive as well as a systematic and thorough turn of mind, and 
was always devising some new and better method for the lessening of the labors ot the 
hands on his estate. He greatly improved many of the unwieldly implements then in 
use, such as ploughs, harrows, hoes, and axes; for he had carpenter, smith, and smithy 
always at hand to materialize his ideas. 




„N:ju„ 



WASHINGTON S SIXTEEN-SIDED BARN. 



His circular, or sixteen-sided barn of brick and frame, sixty feet in diameter 
and two stories high, was the wonder of his neighbors. The threshing or treading out 
floor, ten feet wide was in the second story, all round the centre mows; and the oxen or 
horses were taken up to it by an inclined plane. The floor of it was of open slats, that 
the grains might, without the straw, fall through to the floor below. Later, he had 
constructed, a device, worked by horse power, by which the heads of wheat sheaves, 
held on a table against rapidly revolving arms, were beaten out : this was probably the 
first step, after the hoof and flail, towards the power-thresher of the present day. 

WASHINCTON S COACH. 

Made in England, 1789. The body and wheels were of cream color, then very 
fashionable, with gilt relief, and the body was suspended upon the old-fashioned 
heavy leathern straps, like those of the former day stage coaches. Part of the sides 
and front were shaded by green Venetian blinds, enclosed by black leather curtains. 
The lining was of black, glossy leather. The Washington arms were handsomely 
painted on the doors, with the characteristic motto, "Exitus, acta probaV — the result 
proves actions. Upon each of the four panels of the coach was a picture of the four 
seasons. Usually, the General drove but four horses, but on going from Mount Vernon 
to the seat of government, at Philadelphia or New York, he drove six. 



74 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



A LOVE SONNET BY WASHIN 

FROM 

Oh ye gods, why should my poor restless heart 

Stand to oppose your might and power, 
At last surrendered to Cupid's feather' d dart, 

And now lays bleeding every hour 
For her that's pitiless of my grief and woes, 

And will not on nie pity lake. 
He sleeps amongst my most inveterate foes, 

And with gladness never wish to wake. 
In deluding sleeping let my eyelids close, 

That in an enraptured dream I may 
In a soft, lulling sleep and gentle repose 

Possess those joys denied by day. 



GTON AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN. 

HIS DIARY. 

By your bright sparkling eyes I was undone ; 

Kays you have ; more transparent than the sun, 
Amidst its glory in the rising day 

None can you equal in your bright array ; 
Constant in your calm and unspotted mind ; 

Equal to all, but will to none prove kind, 
So knowing, seldom one so young, you'll find, 

Ah ! woe's me, that I should love and conceal, 
Long have I wish'd, but never dared reveal, 

Even though severely love's pains I feel ; 
Xerxes the great, was not free from Cupid's dart, 

And all the greatest heroes felt the smart. 



A LOVE LETTER WRITTEN AT SIXTEEN, FROM HIS DIARY. 

Dear^SwHy :— This comes to Fredericksburg fair in hopes of meeting with a speedy passage to you if 
vour not there, which hope you'l get shortly, ahho 1 am almost discouraged from writing to you, as this 
is my fourth to you since I received any from yourself. I hope you'll not make the old proverb good, out 
of sight out of mind, as its one of the greatest pleasures I can yet forsee of having in Fairlax, in often 
hearing from you, hope you'l not deny me. 

I pass the time much more agreeably than I imagined I should, as ther's a very agreeable young lady 
lives in the same house where I reside, (Colonel George Fairfax's wife's sister), that in a great measure 
cheats my sorrow and dejectedness, tho not so as to draw my thoughts altogether from your parts. I 
could wish to be with you down there with all my heart, but as a thing almost impracticable shall rest 

myself where I am with hopes of shortly having some min- 
utes of your transactions in your parts which will be very 
welcomely received by your 

Geo. W. 

EXTRACTS FROM WASHINGTON'S DIARY. 

1773- 
May I. Went fishing in Broad Creek. 




Apri 

fishing 



*3' '774- I n company with Colonel Basset went 
in Broad Creek. 



Washington at Three Score Years. 



1774- 

Went to Pohick Church with Mr. Custis. 

Went to the barbecue at Accotink. 

Colonel Pendleton, Mr. Henry, and Colonel Mason came 
in the evening and staved all night. 

Colonel Pendleton, Mr. Henry, and 1 set out on our jour- 
ney to Philadelphia to attend the Congress. 

Dined with Mr. Pleasants (a Quaker). 

Dined with Joseph Pemberion (a Quaker). 

Went to Quaker meeting in the forenoon, and to St. Peters 
in the afteruoon. 

Went to Christ Church, and dined at the New Tavern. 

Went to the Presbyterian meeting in the forenoon, and to 
the Romish church in the afternoon. 

Dined at the New Tavern with the Pennsylvania Assem- 
bly, and went to the Ball afterwards. 



MOUNT VERNON DURI NG THE CI VI L WAR. 

The Mount Vernon home during the four years of the civil war was'considered by 
the soldiers of both armies as sacred and inviolable ground and consequently not to be 
invaded by the spoiler. The thunders of its neighboring battles echoed over its beau- 
tiful and quiet seclusion and armed fleets sailed by its still shores on their swift errands 
of death. It was well that the great hero and patriot after his patriotic services and 
victories, heard and saw them not — that he knew nothing of their direful and baleful 
import. His dying hope and prayer had been that peace and fraternal accord might 
reign for long generations within the borders of the land he had loved and defended 
so well. All that was at an end. The internal strife he had so much feared and de- 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 



precated had come to his country. The dragon folds of hostile armies were circling 
the hills and winding over the fair valleys and plains. 

THE LAST RESTING PLACE OF WASHINGTON. 

Speak low ! — the place is holy to the breath Tread lightly ! — for the sanctity of death 

Of awful harmonies, of whispered prayer ; Broods with a voiceless influence in the air. 

The last resting place of Washington is in a secluded hollow at the upper entrance to 
the deep wooded dell along which lies the pathway from the river. The spacious vault 
is built of bricks with an arched roof; its iron door opens into a vestibule, also built 
of bricks in which seen through a picketed iron gate are two marble sarcophagi con- 
taining respectively; the one on the right the remains of Washington and the one on 
the left those of Martha his wife. Over the vault door in a stone panel are the words. 
"I am the resurrection, and the life; He that believeth in me though He were dead ; 
Yet shall He Live." The vestibule is twelve feet high. The gateway is flanked by 
brick pilasters surmounted by a stone coping which covers a gothic arch. Over this 
arch is a white marble tablet inscribed, "Within this enclosure rest the remains of 
General George Washington." The coffin or tomb of Mrs. Washington is perfectly 
plain with a simple inscription. That of the General is plain also, except the lid on 
which is represented in relief the American shield over the flag of the United States. 
The latter is hung in festoons, and the whole is surmounted as a sort of crest by an eagle 
with open wings perched upon the superior bar of the shield. Each tomb consists of 
an excavation from a solid block of Pennsylvania marble. 

This vault and inclosure were erected many years ago in pursuance of instructions 
given in the following clause of Washington's will : "The family vault at Mount Ver- 
non requiring repairs and being improperly situated, besides, I desire a new one of 
bricks and upon a larger scale at the foot of what is called the Vineyard enclosure, on 
the ground which is marked out, in which my remains and those of my deceased re- 
lations now in the old vault and such others of my family as may choose to be entomb- 
ed there, may be deposited." 

The old vault referred to was on the brow of a declivity in full view of the river, 
about three hundred yards south of the mansion on the left of the present pathway 

from the tomb to the summer 
house on the edge of the lawn. 
It is now a ruin. Therein lay 
the remains of Washington un- 
disturbed for thirty-seven years, 
when an attempt was made by 
some vandal to carry them away. 
The insecure old vault was 
entered and a skull and some 
bones taken. But these com- 
prised no part of the remains 
of the illustrious dead. The 
robber was detected and the 
bones recovered. The new 
vault was then, T837, immedi- 
ately built and all the family 
remains gathered into it just 
as they lie today. From one 
of the persons who was pres- 
ent at the transfer, we have the following account : 

"On entering the vault we fonnd everything in confusion. Decayed fragments of 
coffins were scattered about, and bones of various parts of the human body were seen 
promiscuously thrown together. The decayed wood was dripping- with moisture. The 
slimy snail glistened in the light of the door's opening. The brown centipede was dis- 
turbed by the admission of fresh air and the mouldy cases of the dead gave a pungent 
and unwholesome odor. The coffins of Washington and his lady were in the deepest 
recesses of the vault. They were of lead, inclosed in wcoden cases. When the sar- 




WASHINGTON S TOMB. 



76 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

cophagi arrived, the coffin of the chief was brought forth and the decayed wooden 
case removed. The leaden lid was found to be broken. At the request of Major 
Lewis the broken part of the lid was turned over exposing to view a head and breast of 
large dimensions which appeared by candle light to have changed but little in the lapse 
of time. The eye sockets were large and deep and the breadth across the temples, to- 
gether with the forehead appeared of unusual size." 

These remains were placed in the marble sarcophagus and sealed from sight October 
7th, 1837 and since that time have never been disturbed. 

IMPROVEMENT AND PROTECTION OF THE MOUNT VERNON ESTATE. 

Elswhere in this "Hand Book." allusion has been made to the changes which 
have been wrought on the Mount Vernon Estate since the passing away of its distin- 
guished proprietor at the close of the last century. First, of its rapid decadence, 
through neglect and improvident culture, from well ordered conditions of agriculture 
to those of unthrift and desolation, and finally, after the lapse of half a century, of the 
coming of new hands from places remote, to begin the work of transforming the wasted 
areas to fields of waving grain and clover, and to orchards of abundant fruitage, The 
work of restoration has been increasing from year to year since 1852, and, now that 
the electric railway has made the entire domain suburban to Alexandria and Wash- 
ington, the prospect of still greater improvements becomes brighter and more encour- 
aging. With the cheap and rapid transit which is afforded by this road to and from 
these cities there will doubtless be large accessions of new settlers from localities far 
less favored, to occupy the divisions and subdivisions of the many large farms of the 
estate. 

Just after the Mexican war, when the general government was casting about to find 
a suitable location for the National Military Asylum, or Soldiers' Home, as it is now 
called, the Hon. Lewis McKenzie and other prominent citizens of Alexandria proposed 
and strenuously urged upon the authorities the acquirement by purchase of a thousand 
acres of the estate for that purpose. No more fitting choice could have been made for 
a soldier's refuge, and the property could have been secured at that time for less than 
thirty thousand dollars. 

In 1859, the "Ladies' Association," with their patriotic contributions of two hun- 
dred thousand dollars, purchased the ''Mansion" and two hundred acres, and began 
the work of restoring and preserving the buildings and the immediate grounds. How 
well they have succeeded in their efforts, the present attractive appearance of the prem- 
ises and the orderly arrangements of policeing and other daily duties incident to the 
reception of visitors most satisfactorily attest. And while a grateful and appreciative 
public are ready and willing to accord to the patriotic association all due credit and 
praise for their earnest and continuing care and solicitude, there is a rapidly increasing 
conviction, nevertheless, among all such as reverence the name and goodly fame of 
Washington, all over our land, that the time has come for the control of the "Home 
and Tomb" to pass into the hands of the general government, that our people may be 
relieved from the odium of laying all pilgrims to this much frequented shrine under 
capitation tribute before allowing them permission to enter the gates of its enclosures. 
As Washington was above and beyond all merely mercenary motives, and despised un- 
dignified schemings, so the place which was honored by his living presence and which 
holds his ashes ought to be accessible without money or price. In Europe every mau- 
soleum of note is freely opened to visitors without charge, and not only every mauso- 
leum but every depository of arts and literature ; and reproachful allusions are not un- 
frequently heard by American tourists abroad from foreigners who have been required 
to pay a fee at the entrance to the mausoleum of George Washington. 

May we not hope that among the many unreasonable customs of our country which 
are doomed to pass away before the march of progress, this discreditable custom of 
levying tribute at the gate of Mount Vernon may be among the first to be discontinued. 
To the objection so often urged by those who look with disfavor upon the change pro- 
posed, that the place tinder government control would not be so well cared lor and 
guarded from depredations asunder the present provident management of the ladies, it 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 77 

seems only necessary to refer to the result through many years of that control of the 
Smithsonian and national museums, the agricultural grounds, and public parks, the 
Congressional library, Arlington and other public charges now under exclusive govern- 
ment care. A tithe of the yearly appropriations wasted on worthless lortifications, and 
warships would amply suffice to keep up all needed repairs at Mt. Vernon, and a small 
detail of soldiers from the army would supply the required work of policeing and pro- 
tecting all from the hands of the spoiler. 




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\ '•'•>- .'"** 'V'Sitt^lj^ • (■ > y^t"^g^]i ii I,,, „ ,7. iii'ni'irn- nditim \tmtmtm ' V" 1 ^ '" 




WASHINGTON'S MILL AT EPSEWASSON. 
Lord Thomas Culpeper was vice regal governor of the colony of Virginia one year, 
that of 1679. On h 's return to England at the close of his administration, he, with 
several associates, obtained, as a court favor, a royal grant of all the lands, timbers and 
water ways of the Northern Neck of Virginia, which included all the territory lying be- 
tween the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers, and the head of the waters thereof. 
The rights of his associates to the grant, Culpeper subsequently purchased and became 
sole proprietor, and as it was for his interest to have his millions of acres settled and 



i$ SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

improved, he took advantage of the provisions of a law which had been passed by the 
colonial legislature allowing to every person who would import from England a settler, 
the reward of a title to fifty acres of unseated lands, and thus it came to pass that Lieut. 
Col. John Washington, a great grandfather of the General, and Col. Nicholas Spencer, 
a cousin of the proprietor, both of whom had served in the legislature of Virginia in 
166667, and the latter as president of the council, for and in consideration of having, 
at their own expense, imported one hundred English immigrants into the colony, re- 
ceived in the "twenty-seventh year of the rainge of our Sovereigne Lord, King 
Charles ye second, Anno Domini 1674," a grant from the proprietor of five thousand 
acres of land "scituate, lying and being in the county of Stafford,* in the freshes of 
Pottomeek river and neare opposite to Piscataway, Indian towne of Mariland and, 
neare the land of Capt. Giles Brent on the north side, and neare the land surveyed 
for Mr. Wm. Dudley and others on the south side, being a necke of land bounded 
betweene two creeks and the maine river on the east side, and by the said maine river 
of Pottomack on the north, and by a creeke called by ye English, Little Hunting 
Creek and the maine branches thereof. On the south by a creek named and called 
by the Indians Epsewasson Creeke and the maine branch thereof, which creeke, di- 
vides this land of Griene and Dudley and others on the west side by a right lyne 
drawne from the branches of the aforesaid Epsewasson and Little Hunting creek, in- 
cluding the aforesaid quantity of 5,000 acres, together with all trees, profits, como- 
dyties, emoluments, and additions whatsoever therein belonging, and all manner of 
mines of gold, silver and copper. And provided that if the said Lieut. Colonel John 
Washington and Col. Nicholas Spencer, their heirs or assigns, shall not plant or seate 
the said lands within the term of three years next ensuing, then this grant and every- 
thing herein contained to be null and void." 

This grant or tract remained undivided and but little improved until the year 1690, 
when by an order of the court of Stafford one John Washington and George Brent 
were commissioned to make an equal division of it between Lawrence, son and heir of 
Col. John Washington, and the heirs of Col. Spencer. The division was made so that 
each share should have half of the river boundary and half of the back line as nearly 
as in point of quality could be made, and that one creek should belong entirely to one 
share, and the other creek to the other share. The part next to Epsewasson creek fell 
to the Spencers, and the part next to Little Hunting creek fell to Lawrence Washington 
with the contingent that the former was to pay to the latter twenty-five hundred pounds 
of tobacco and a certain amount in cash to make up for estimated differences of value. 

Some time after this division, LawTence Washington, dying, left his share of 2500 
acres to his daughter, Mildred, who married Roger Gregory ; and in 1726 they both 
united in a deed for the same property to Cnpt. Augustine Washington, the father of 
the General, for the consideration of about nine hundred dollars. He was a sea faring 
man. In 1725 he was captain of a ship, carrying iron from Agokeek, Colchester and 
other iron furnaces and bringing back convicts as settlers. He was born in 1694 and 
died in 1743 in King George county. In the year 1734 or 35, he came up from the 
lower river lands of Westmoreland which he had deemed unhealthy, to make improve- 
ments on the upper Potomac grant. He brought with him his family consisting of 
Mary, his wife, and their children consisting of Augustine, Jane, George, Betty and 
Samuel. He settled down with them at the head of that beautiful arm of the river 
next below Mount Vernon known as Doeg Bay and on the banks of the Epsewasson, a 
stream flowing into it, constructed a grist and saw mill. All the surrounding lands 
were at that time in process of settlement, and as they came into cultivation, mills for 
sawing the timbers for habitation* and grinding the grains for feeding the pioneers be- 
came an urgent necessity, and Captain Augustine, with his keen foresight, was among 
the first to anticipate and provide for these wants. Nearby the grist mill, he erected a 
small dwelling, where the prudent and matronly housewife, Mary, went her rounds of 
busy care, "looking well to her household and eating not the bread of idleness," where 
the youthful George, the hope afterwards of unborn millions, passed several years of 

*Now in the county of Fairfax. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 79 

his useful life, and where the younger children, John Augustine and Mildred, were 
probably born. The mill was provided with the best machinery that could then be 
obtained, and so excellent in after years was the flour manufactured for export under 
the management of George, the son, that its brand always passed without inspection. 
Large cargoes of it were shipped to the West Indies and other points in schooners, 
which then came in the deeper waters and loaded at the very doors of the mill. The 
picture as given is not an ideal of the old structure, but a correct representation of it 
from a drawing made long years ago. In this mill was ground also, all the flour and 
meal for the surrounding neighborhood as we'll as the grists of the grain products of the 
five large plantations of the Mount Vernon estate. 

There are a few still living who have youthful memories of the mill in the closing 
days of its usefulness, who heard the busy din and clatter of its old wooden cog wheels 
and saw the dusty miller taking his tolls and the cumbrous ox wains, with their ebony 
colored drivers bringing in and carrying away their grists. 

The shaky tenement stood until the beginning of the fifties. The plash of the pent 
up waters over its great wheel with foam, and rainbow hues, and the clatter and din of 
its grinding gear have been silent for nearly three-score years. The long race way 
which led the hurrying waters from the pond far up the valley across the fields to turn 
the busy wheel is now a grazing ground for cattle. The springs no longer confined by 
dyke or dam are scattered and running to wasie. Many of the stones of the mill walls 
have been carried away to be used for foundations of houses in the neighborhood. At 
the door of a farm house nearby, the great nether stone that ground the whilom grists, 
now serves as a stepping stone to the doorway. The stream whose depth floated the 
trading schooners of the olden time, and where the fisherman cast his net for herring 
and shad ; and where the youthful George mayhaps angled and took his first lessons in 
the art of swimming, have been filled by the descending alluvion from the cultivated 
fields through the many years, and are now no more than an easy fording place. 

Augustine Washington remained at Epsewasson but a few years, but to him they were 
years of busy life. Besides building the mills as described, he erected the middle and 
original portion of the Mount Vernon mansion for his son Lawrence, who was then ab- 
sent from the province and engaged in the siege of Carthagena. 

It will be remembered that the mill was one of the last places visited by General 
Washington in his usual round of inspection of his farming premises, on the day pre- 
vious to his sudden death. The locality is one rather sequestered and lonely, with 
rarely a passing traveler. 

But go there reader as the writer has gone many a time it your sympathies and rever- 
ential inclinations are for objects like these and take your seat in the drowsy quiet of 
a midsummer day under the shadowy branches of one of the oaks still remaining of the 
olden forest ; and while you gaze on the briar grown ruins and listen to the murmur of 
the dwindled stream which goes hurrying on in its course to join the waters of the ma- 
jestic stream but a mile or two beyond, the mystic veil which hides the vanished years 
of a century and a half will rise, and lo ! all around you will throng the faded scenes 
and forms of the early days. The fallen stones will move from the scattered heaps un- 
der the straggling vines and brambles and lake their places in the walls again. The 
mill of Augustine and George Washington will be itself once more. The water will 
come pouring down over the mossy wheel. You will hear the clattering of the grind- 
ing gear, and the plantation wains will bring in and carry away their burdens. You 
will see the dusty miller taking his tolls and filling the bins. A horseman will ride up, 
and hitching his horse by the door, go in and hold parley with the miller, and you 
will not need to ask who he is, for his stately mien and dignified bearing will at once 
proclaim him the proprietor. You will see, too, the trading schooner waiting at the 
landing for its cargo for Jamaica or Barbadoes. The early pioneers in rough homespun 
garb and quaint vehicles will pass along the old highway by you in toilsome march for 
the new Canaan of their imaginations, there to fix their landmarks and lay the hearth 
stones. Anon, you will see straggling companies of provincial troops dressed in kersey 
or buckskin, with heavy flint lock muskets on their shoulders, hurrying up to the camp 



SO SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

at the newborn hamlet of Alexandria. General Braddock and Governor Dinwiddie, 
Commodore Kepple and General John St. Clair will ride along in the pomp of vice re- 
gal chariot and dashing retinue and guards of British regulars in showy scarlet uni- 
forms bright with gilding and tinsel. War's wild alarum has been sounded, and the 
frontiers must be held against the encroachments of the French and their murderous 
Indian allies. Among other passers up the highway, you will see a strippling wagon 
boy in homely workman's garb driving his own team, and like the rest of the wayfarers 
hurrying to the camp. He had been for a year in the employ of John Ballentiiie, haul- 
ing iron ore to his furnace at Colchester, but the drum and fife of the troopers and the 
wild rumors of war have opened the vision of his adventurous spirit to other duties and 
other lines of action. 

He is going to offer his team to Braddock's quartermaster to haul supplies for the 
army over the mountains. Very obscure, lowly and friendless was this wagon boy then, 
but under that homespun shirt and buckskin cap were the lion heart and comprehensive 
intellect which when ere long the opportunities came to him were to win for him a re- 
nown as a soldier and commander, world wide and imperishable. 

The boy who plodded over the weary roads of the Occoquan with his loads of ore 
for the furnace became in after years the strategic and trusted soldier, the intrepid lead- 
er of the riflemen of Viiginia and the swaying spirit and hero of Quebec, Saratoga and 
Cowpens. 

The years pass on. The war is over. The French and Indians have receded and 
peace and safety for the new settlements reign in the place of alarm. Braddock is 
resting in an unmarked grave in the far off wilderness beyond the mountains. The 
provincial troopers are back from the disastrous rout at Duquesne to their homes in 
the lowlands. Col. Washington, the hero of the day, has heen elected to the House 
of Burgesses from the county of Fairfax, and has been down attending the session at 
Williamsburg, and now we see him coming up the highway in his coach and four with 
outriders. But he is not alone. Beside him sits a prim, matronly looking lady at- 
tired in silk and laces who but the day before was the widow Custis. Now, she is 
Mrs. George Washington and is going up to preside as the mistress of the manor house 
of Mount Vernon. Other historic scenes appear and vanish as we gaze, and the Vir- 
ginia Colonel again rides along as he goes to and'irom the provincial capital. 

Years later the continental armies of Washington, Green, Lafayette and Wayne surge 
along, going to the closing act in the revolutionary drama. 

Not in all the thirteen colonies was there a more historic road than this which cours- 
ed down from the mountains by Alexandria, Epsewasson and over the Occoquan at Col- 
chester and down to Williamsburg. It is one of the most interesting landmarks in our 
State. 

The site of the old mill we have been describing is distant two miles from the Mount 
Vernon Mansion, two from old Belvoir, one from Woodlawn, the second home of 
Nellie Custis Lewis, and a half mile from the turnpike leading from Alexandria to Ac- 
cotink. It will repay a diversion from the beaten line of travel with the varied reflec- 
tions it will evoke from every pilgrim, whose patriotism and reverence are wont to 
kindle at every shrine around which lingers an association or memorial glimpse, how- 
ever faint and dim, of the illustrious personage whose name and tame, are indissolubly 
linked with so much that we all value and hold in kindly remembrance and holy trust. 

WOODLAWN, THE HOME OF NELLIE CUSTIS LEWIS. 

The portrait of Miss Nellie Custis by Gilbert Stuart from which the accompanying 
engraving was taken and which is now in the possession of Prof. William F. Lee of 
Lexington College, Va., was considered by cotemporary judges an excellent likeness 
and one of the most beautiful faces the artist had painted in the colonies. Miss Nellie 
was frequently in the company of Stuart at Mount Vernon and other places, the result 
of which was a very cordial and enduring friendship. The portrait was the most at- 
tractive picture among the rare paintings at Arlington House, the residence of her 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



81 



brother for about fifty years. It is the likeness of a maiden about eighteen years of 
age, the admired of all who attended the republican court during the last years of 
Washington's administration as President of the United States. 

She is dressed in a plain white garment, in the scant fashion of the day, one of her 
plump, bare arms forming a conspicuous feature of the picture, her chin resting upon a 
finger of her gently closed hand. Her sweet face, regular in every feature, is garnished 
by her dark curls, tastefully clustering around her forehead and temples, while her long 
hair, gathered in an apparently careless manner on the top of her head, is secured by 
a cluster of white flowers. The whole picture is modest, simple, beautiful. 

"Nellie Custis," as she was called in her maidenhood, was as witty as she was beau- 
tiful ; quick at repartee, highly accomplished, full of information, a good conversation- 
alist, the life of any company whether young or old, and was greatly beloved by her 
foster-father, the great patriot. When in June, 1775, Washington was appointed Com- 
mander-in Chief of the Continental Army, he placed John Parke Custis, the father of 
"Nelly," on his staff, in which capacity he served during most of the long war that 
followed. He was aide to Washington at the siege of Yorktown in the autumn of 1781, 
and was then a member of the Virginia Assembly, but dying that year of fever, his 




WOODLAWN, THE HOME OF NELLIE CUSTIS LEWIS. 

children, George W. Parke Custis and Eleanor Parke Custis, were left orphans, the for- 
mer only six months old and the latter nearly three years old, and became the adopted 
children of Washington, and the fondly cared for inmates of the home at Mount Ver- 
non. Here a -private tutor of collegiate training was provided for them and under the 
watchful and exemplary care of their distinguished guardians, their young minds were 
developed for the practical duties of life. 

Nellie was born at Abingdon, the Custis homestead on the Potomac just above the 
four mile run, March 21, 1778. Her mother was a descendant of Cecil Calvert, Lord 
Baltimore, through her grandfather Benedict Calvert of Mount Airy, Maryland. A 
paternal ancestor John Parke was at one time a member of the English Parliament and 
afterwards a soldier in Queen Anne's army in Holland and became an aide de camp of 
the renowned Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim in Germany, fought August 2nd, 
1801. Marlborough commanded the English troops and Marshal Tallard those of 
France and Bavaria who lost the day with 27000 killed and wounded, and 13000 made 
prisoners. By the victory, the Electorate of Bavaria became the prize of the victors. 



82 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

Col. Parke had the honor of bearing the joyful intelligence to Queen Anne who, as a 
token of her regard gave him her miniature portrait set in diamonds, a thousand 
pounds sterling and appointed him governor of the Leeward Islands. In the rebellion 
in Antigua he became obnoxious to the seditious faction and fell by a musket shot. 

Washington had a nephew, Lawrence Lewis, the sixth child of Col. Fielding Lewis 
and Betty Washington, who was the second child of Captain Augustine Washington, 
who was the second child of Lawrence, who was the first child of Col. John Washing- 
ton the immigrant to Bridge's Creek, Westmoreland county, Va., in 1657. He had 
served meritoriously in the revolutionary struggle and toward the close of it was an 
aide on the staff of General Daniel Morgan the renowned wagon boy of the Occoquan. 
He was much at Mount Vernon after the retirement of Washington from the presi- 
dency, and the "blessing" of a "good husband for Nellie when she would want and 
deserve one" was bestowed upon her. She and Lawrence were married Feb. 22, 1799. 
Many suitors had sought her hand to be denied for the one her grandfather had chosen 
and preferred for her over all others. About a month before the happy event the pa- 
triot wrote to his nephew saying : "Your letter of January 10th, I received in Alexan- 
dria on Monday, whither I went to become the guardian of Nellie, thereby to authorize 
a license for your nuptials on the 22nd of next month." The wedding took place on 
the last anniversary of his birthday that Washington spent on earth. Great preparations 
had been made for the event. The mansion was decked with flowers and evergreens, 
and ample provision made for a time of festivity and good cheer ; and the gentlefolk of 
the surrounding country invited. There were assembled for the occasion the Dandridges, 
Custises, Calverts, Lees, Lewises, Corbins, Bushrods, Blackburns, Masons, Carrolls, and 
many others. The ceremony was performed in the great drawing-room lighted by 
many waxen tapers, which brought out in strong relief the silent portraits on the walls, 
in curious contrast with the merry throng before them. The stately minuet was danced 
and the spirited Virginia reel. Low voices whispered tender words in hall and ante- 
rooms, and the house soon to be so silent and mournful, echoed with mirth and hilarity. 
It was a brilliant scene. The picturesque costumes of the colonial days were still in 
vogue, — rich fabrics, and richer colors, stomachers, and short clothes, jewelled buckles 
and brooches, powder and ruffles everywhere. Mount Vernon never witnessed such a 
scene again. Ten months later in the same spacious drawing room the scene of these 
bridal festivities, the body of the great chief lay on its sable bier and at the eventide of 
one midsummer day fifty-two years after the pealing of the joyous wedding bells, the 
bride who was then the cynosure of all eyes and the theme of all praise from the gay 
admiring throng which had crowded around her, was brought and laid in funeral robes 
in the hush and silence of death to await the last sad rites of burial in the family tomb, 
clcse to the remains of the long departed friends of her childhood and girlhood years. 

By a provision of the last will and testament of George Washington, made July 9, 
1799, "all that tract of land" in the county of Fairfax, and a portion of the Mount 
Vernon estate ''north of the road leading from the ford of Dogue Run to the Gum 
spring as described in the devise of the other part of the tract to Bushrod Washington, 
until it comes to the stone and the three red or Spanish oaks on the knowl — thence with 
the rectangular line to the back line, between Mr. Mason and me — thence with that 
line westerly along the new double ditch to Dogue Run by the tumbling dam of my 
mill — thence with the said run to the ford aforementioned, to which I add all the land 
I possess west of said Dogue Creek, bounded easterly and southerly thereby — together 
with the Mill and Distillery, and all other houses and improvements on the premises, 
making together about two thousand acres," was devised as a dower to the aforesaid 
Major Lewis and Nellie his wife. On this patrimoniil estate, these favored subjects of 
the General's solicitude erected in 1805 a commodious dwelling; — much more preten- 
tious than that of Mount Vernon — indeed the stateliest of all the manor houses of the 
upper Potomac — and began under the most favorable auspices the establishment of their 
new home. Nellie was then about twenty-four years of age. It had been five years 
since she followed the remains of her honored grandfather to their last resting place 
and Martha, her grandmother, had only three years before, been laid by his side. They 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 83 

built their dwelling-place three miles inland from Mount Vernon, but on a high ele- 
vation, so that it commanded a pleasant view of the river and the expanse of Dogue 
Bay and its wide stretching valley. 

Hardly half of the extensive manor was then cleared and under cultivation. The 
rest was heavily timbered. The soil had not lost all its virgin richness, and abundant 
crops were produced even under slave labor. 

Woodlawn in Culpeper county was the home of Major Lewis' childhood and he 
honored the place and its endearing associations by transferring the name to his new 
home on the Potomac. Nellie's grandfather, in his parental fondness for her and his 
great regard for the husband of her choice did not forget to supplement his liberal gift 
of two thousand acres of land for their homestead with other substantial tokens of land 
and ready cash with which to erect without delay, a suitable dwelling for them so that 
their patrimony was made entirely ample to maintain their high social standing, and 
grandmother Martha from her large resources gave them fitting dower for their new be- 
ginnings. 

Under the roof of Woodlawn was ever dispensed a generous hospitality, and many 
were the distinguished guests from all lands in the early decades of the century who 
came to cross its threshold and pay their regards to its worthy proprietors. General, 
the Marquis de Lafayette, on his second visit in 11824 to the land he had so valiantly 
helped to defend and make independent, came here to renew his fondly cherished ac- 
quaintance with Nelly, the stately housewife, who was but a child when he had seen her 
nearly fifty years before in the home of his old commander, and had taken her oft 
times in her sweet laughing moods upon his knee and kissed her with a parental fond- 
ness, remembering doubtless the dear ones of his own household so far away in La 
Belle France. Nellie was no stranger to the faces of titled dignitaries of the old 
world, for she had seen scores of them and hundreds of our own celebrities both civil 
and military, when a child in the closing years of the war and during the time of the 
first presidency. At all times and with all conditions of life around, she was the cour- 
teous, intelligent and agreeable lady, winning and retaining the esteem of all who knew 
her. Gifted with rare and genuine sympathy she was ever ready in generous response 
in the joys and sorrows, in the hopes and fears, the prosperity or adversity of those 
whom she honored with her friendship. The toilers on the plantation always found in 
her a sympathizer with and a promoter of their conditions. Her religious professions 
she carried out in every day life and made them a practical reality. She was a zealous 
member of the Episcopal Church and a regular attendant upon its services either at Po- 
hick or Alexandria. Always it was her usage, says one who knew her, and is still among 
the living, to have morning and evening prayers which all of the domestics of the house 
attended. 

For nearly forty years Nelly was mistress of the Woodlawn mansion, and here were 
born to her four children — Agnes the eldest, dying at a school in Philadelphia ; Fran- 
ces Parke, who married General E. G. W. Butler, and died at Pass Christian, Missis- 
sippi, a few years ago ; Lorenzo, and Eleanor Angela, who married Hon. C. M. Con- 
rad, of Louisiana, and died in New Orleans many years ago. Major Lawrence Lewis 
died at Arlington, November 20, 1839, and one summer day, July 15, 1852, Mrs. Nelly, 
his wife, followed him, full of years and honors to the burial vault at Mount Vernon. 
She had passed four years beyond the three score and ten line. To the watcher from 
farmhouse and village, that must have been a lonely and mournful funeral procession 
indeed, as it slowly wended its course down the long Virginia highway from the Shen- 
andoah to the Potomac. The hearse containing the remains of the aged grandmother, 
and a solitary carriage accompanying, with the two surviving grandsons, one of whom 
was lately living to tell of the impressive circumstances of the event. Late at night their 
journey was finished, and the coffined form of Nelly was placed in the parlor at Mount 
Vernon, where, more than fifty years before, crowned with bridal wreaths, "the fairest 
lady of the land," Washington himself had affectionately given her in marriage, and 
commended her to the protecting care of the one favored claimant of his choice, and 
where she had received the congratulations and blessings of so many of her kinsfolk 



84 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

and friends. Many of the citizens of Alexandria and Washington and the surround- 
ing country came to pay their tributes of fond remembrance and regard to "Nelly" as 
she lay in state in the "mansion," and to see the last of "earth to earth." Down in 
the family burial-place, just by the waters of the river on whose pleasant banks she 
had passed so many happy days in childhood and youth, her dust is very near to that 
of her kind and loving guardians. A marble monument marks her last resting-place 
with the following inscription : 

"Sacred 
to the memory of Eleanor Parke Custis, granddaughter of Mrs. Washington, and adopt- 
ed daughter of General Washington." Reared under the roof of the Father of his Coun- 
try, this lady was not more remarkable for the beauty of her person than for the supe- 
riority of her mind. She lived to be admired, and died to be regretted, July 15, 1852, 
in the seventy-fourth year of her age. Another handsome monument in the same iron 
inclosure marks the resting place of her daughter Eleanor Angela Conrad. 

With the return of many of our national decoration days the writer in humble tribute 
to her womanly excellence and exemplary virtues and in reverent remembrance of his- 
toric associations has deemed it a pleasure to strew these apparently neglected graves 
with flowers. Even in her last closing years Nelly retained many traces of her early 
beauty and vivacity. She passed away at Audley, a homestead of nearlv sixteen hun- 
dred acres in Clarke county, near the Shenandoah, belonging also to Major Lewis, where 
she had lived over twenty years after leaving Woodlawn. 

The writer has been told by her grandson that the early home life and associations 
of Mount Vernon, lingered ever with his grandmother as beatifying visions, and that 
she never wearied in recounting them to her children and grandchildren. A theme 
dearest of all to her heart was the story of her social relations with the fond and indul- 
gent master and mistress of the Mount Vernon home whose passing away from her she 
long and deeply mourned. Her love and reverence for Washington amounted almost 
to worship and who will wonder at her constant devotion, knowing all the circumstances 
and harmonious relations of the beginning and sundering of their united lives. The 
bright particular star which had set in glory to the world was to her a continuing radi- 
ance, growing brighter and brighter to the close of her eventful years. "All who 
knew the subject of our sketch," says her niece, Mrs. General Robert E. Lee, in her 
memoirs of George W. Parke Custis, "were wont to recall the pleasure they had derived 
from her extensive information, brilliant wit, and boundless generosity. The most ten- 
der parent and devoted friend ; she lived in the enjoyment of her affections. She was 
often urged to write her memoirs, which might even have surpassed in interest to her 
countrymen those of Madame de Sevinge and others of equal note, as her pen gave 
free expression to her lively imagination and clear memory. Would that we could re- 
call the many tales of the past we have heard from her lips, but, alas I we should fail to 
give them accurately. One narrative is retained, as it made a strong impression at the 
time. She said the most perfect harmony always existed "between her grandmamma 
and the General," and that in all his intercourse with her he was most considerate and 
tender. She had often seen her when she had something to communicate or a request 
to make of him at a moment when his mind was entirely abstracted from the pre^ent T 
seize him by the button to command his attention, when he would look down upon her 
with a benignant smile and become at once attentive to her wishes, which were never 
slighted. She also said that the grave dignity which he usually wore did not prevent 
his keen enjoyment of a joke, and that no one laughed more heartily than did he when 
she herself, a gay, laughing girl, gave one of her saucy descriptions of any scene in 
which she had taken part, or any one of the merry pranks she then often played ; 
and that he would retire from the room in which her young companions were arr using 
themselves, because his presence caused a reserve which they could not overcome. 
But he always regretted it exceedingly, as their sports and enjoyments always seemed 
to interest him." 

Of course, Washington was always Nelly's ideal hero, and the grandest of all the line 
of noble men. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



85 



General Zachary Taylor was one of her favorites among the public men of her later time, 
and when he was elected to the presidency, she paid him a visit, and was for some time 
an honored guest in the White House, where she received the marked attentions of 
many distinguished personages of that day. While she lived she did not lose the hold 
she had in all her younger years upon the popular regard. She was still the storied 
"Nelly" who had been the fondly petted child in the household of him who was "first 
in peace, first in war, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 




NELLY CUSTIS, AT EIGHTEEN. 

Mrs. Lawrence Lewis had two sisters, Martha Parke who was married to Thomas 
Peters, a large Virginia planter, and Elizabeth Parke, who was married to the wealthy and 
eccentric Thomas Law, a nephew of Lord Ellenboro, As governor of a large district 
in Bengal, India, Law had been-accustomed to thedischarge of important official func- 



86 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

tions and to the splendors and surroundings of a prince. In England his family was 
oppulent and distinguished. One brother was bishop of Carlisle, another a barrister of 
the first eminence and the successful defender of Warren Hastings against the political 
influence of Fox, the eloquence of Sheridan and the virulence of Burke. He was promi- 
nent in the improvement of the National Capital about 1800, purchased a large tract of 
wilderness land embracing the site of the arsenal, and laid out streets and upon them 
built a number of houses some of which are still standing. 

When that fair, smooth brow of the great artist's picture had been imprinted with the 
lines of threescore >ears, and those clustering curls had changed their brown to threads 
of snow, how she must have seemed like some saintly messenger to those who eagerly 
listened to her as she brought from memory's far away shore the historic scenes which 
had passed before those sparkling eyes in the heyday of her youthful life. Lorenzo, her 
only son, inherited the Woodlawn estate, and resided for some years in the mansion. 
He was married to Esther Maria Coxe, of Philadelphia, in 1827, and died in 1847. 
His widow survived him until 1885. Of the six children of Lorenzo, only one is left, 
*J. R. C. Lewis, of Berryville, Clarke county, Virginia. In 1845, tne entire domain 
of this estate, having been almost entirely neglected through many years, presented a 
most forlorn appearance. Only here and there a patch of ground was under cultiva- 
tion — not a handful of grass-seed was sown, not a ton of hay cut. The fields were 
overgrown with sedge, brambles, sassafras and cedars, and all traces of fencing had 
disappeared. Not a white man was living on an acre of it. Only a few superannuated 
slaves remained in some rickety cabins, and these were subsisting on products from a 
farm in another county. The tax assessment was thirty dollars — one cent and a half 
an acre, although the buildings alone had cost near one hundred thousand dollars, just 
forty-three years before. It was at this period that the New Jersey colony purchased 
the property for $12.50 per acre, and subsequently, the whole tract was divided and 
subdivided into small farms, and occupied by improving proprietors. 

The mansion having a main building sixty by forty feet, with wide halls, spacious 
apartments and ample wings united by corridors was most substantially constructed of 
the best materials, and doubtless its builders imagined their structure would endure 
for centuries, and it is only because of great neglect and severe usage that its condition 
now only ninety-seven years after the laying of its cornerstone is so dilapidated, with its 
leaky roofs, its lo osened casements and unhinged shutters and blinds, its broken win- 
dows and the bricks and stones falling away from its massive walls. 

Only the irreverent and unpatriotic pilgrim who treads these lonely halls 

"Whose guests have fled, 
Whose lights are dead." 

can note the melancholy change without a pang of grief and regret that there are no 
reverent hands to restore the wastes and to set once more in order the stately house 
as it was when its first mistress held there her sway. No other of all the historic 
shrines of Virginia, next to Mount Vernon, appeals so forcibly to our kind regard. 
The manor was a portion of the Mount Vernon estate. The mansion was erected as 
we have seen by the loving munificence of the first President and his wife. Its mis- 
tress grew up and was educated under his affectionate care and solicitude. Its master 
was. his nephew and had won honors as a gallant soldier of the revolution, serving on 
the staff of General Morgan the true hero of Quebec, Saratoga and Cowpens. 

The mansion, substantially constructed of old-fashioned bricks, having a main build- 
ing sixty by forty feet, with halls, spacious apartments, and ample wings, united by 
corridors to the main portion, together with sixty acres of land, was recently purchas- 
ed by a company, who propose in the near future to make it the lower terminus 
of the Electric road, in which event the "Old Mansion" will be faithfully restored 
to its original beauty, and thenceforth be kept as an enduring memorial of its first 

*Died lately. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 87 

mistress, the beloved foster-daughter of George Washington. No more fitting place, 
we think, than this could be chosen by the associations of the sons and daughters of 
the "Revolution" for the holding of their annual reunions: and the keeping of their 
archives and historic mementoes and relics. That would make it a desirable and at- 
tractive place of pilgrimage in all the coming years, and most effectually secure its per- 
petual preservation. 

Note — Since the foregoing account was written the writer has to note with great pleasure that the Wood- 
lawn Mansion has changed ownership and that the work of its restoration has been commenced. 

Here is an extract from one of Nellie's letters to a friend in Philadelphia: 

Mount Vernon, 1798. 

"My Dear We live very happily here — have in general been blessed with health. We have had 

many agreeable visitors and are now contentedly seated round our winter fireside. I ofien think of, and 
would like to again see the many good friends I left in Philadelphia, but I never regret absence from that 
city's amusements and ceremonies. 

I stay very much at home — have not been to the Federal Capital for two months. My grandparents, 
the General and his wife, brother George, Lawrence Lewis, a nephew of the General and your humble 
servant comprise the family circle here at present. I never have a lonesome nor dull hour, never find a 
day too long. Indeed, time appears to fly ; and I sometimes think the years are much shorter for some 
time past, than they ever were before. 

I am not very industrious, but I work a little, read a little, play on the harpsichord, and find my time 
fully taken up with daily employments. My mother and her young family are all well. My sister Mrs. 
Peters has lately presented us wiih another little relation, a very fine girl who is thought to be much like 
her mother. I have not seen my sister since that event, but hear she is quite well. I send by my sister, 
Mrs. Law, a cotton cord and tassel which I learned to make last summer. I hope you will like it, and 
you will gratify me much by wearing it in remembrance of me. 

Mr. G. W. Craik is at present much indisposed. Poor young man, I fear he is not long for this world. 
Alexandria has been very gay this winter ; balls in abundance. When I am in a city, balls are my favorite 
amusement, but when in the country I have no inclination for them. I am too indolent in winter to move 
any distance. 

1 shall thank you to remember me affectionately to those friends who may inquire about me. My be- 
loved grandma joins me in love and best wishes to you and your chddren. 

As the New Year is almost here I will conclude with wishing you and yours many happy new years, 
each succeeding one happier than the last ; and be assured dear Madame that I am with perfect esteem." 

Yours, 

Eleanor P. Custis. 

NELLIE CUSTIS AT MOUNT VERNON. 

The American Revolution was still going on when Nellie Custis was a prattling child 
and it was not until after its last disheartening campaign which ended with the crown- 
ing victory at Yorktown that she began at the age of three years the seventeen years of 
her life which were passed under the guardianship of George and Martha Washington 
at Mount Vernon. Her adoption by these honored personages into the rare felicities 
of their household meant for her orphanage an affectionate solicitude and parental care 
which were to continue unabated while the indulgent master and mistress lived. 

Nellie, though a girl of vivacious spirits and jovial disposition was dutiful, reverent 
and appreciative as we have accounts, and easily won by her genial ways the kind re- 
gard of her guardians and of all her associates and acquaintances. Washington was 
lavish in expense for her education. He employed for her a private tutor, bought her 
a costly harpsichord still to be seen at Mount Vernon, and had her instructed in music 
and dancing. She was quite proficient in drawing, and painting in water colors. She 
loved embroidery and continued the fine employment until the closing years of her 
long life, and many are the mementoes of her skill in this wise still treasured and 
shown by her descendants. 

Nellie grew up to womanhood under influences wholesome, elevating and refining. 
While she was not kept under any rigid restraints, the kindly parental solicitude of her 
guardians encompassed and shielded her from contact with hurtful associations. 
Grandma Martha was a model of.propriety, circumspect in her ways and a fit exem- 
plar for imitation. Nellie was vivacious and social in her disposition. She relished 



88 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



society and was always a welcome presence in its circles. At Mount Vernon she was 
in constant touHi with the intercourse and manners of its many distinguished Ameri- 
can and European visitors representing every department of the knowledge of the times, 
and at the republican court she had thrown in her way, extraordinary opportunties of 
experiences for acquiring social accomplishments and easy and graceful manners. She 
was a child of nature and delighted in all beautiful things. 

To the servants of the Mount Vernon estate with whom the writer talked forty years 
ago, many traditions had come down from their ancestors of the kindly treatment and 
good offices and influences of Miss Nellie. Gilbert Stuart painted her portrait at the 
age of seventeen, an engraving from which prefaces this account. 




WASHINGTON AND NELLIE CUSTIS. 



A distinguished cotemporary who had mingled much in society's gay circle of that 
period has left us this pleasant account of Nellie, "She has more perfection of expres- 
sion of colors, of softness, of firmness of mind, than any one I have ever seen before." 
She loved out door exercises and sports, rode frequently on horse back with her guardian 
when he went to inspect the progress of work on his plantation, when he rode to his 
mill on Dogue run, to Gunston, the home of the patriot Mason, to Colchester and Alex- 
andria. At the latter place she had many friends, the Carlyles, the Ramsays, the Dal- 
tons, the Craiks, the Arals, the Fitzgeralds and Johnsdns who made frequent visits to 
Mount Vernon and with whom at their hospitable homes in the new town she was an 
oft time guest. All this gave her healthy physical development and laid the sure foun- 
dation of her serene old age. 

The beautiful natural attributes which were developing in Nellie in her later girl- 
hood, with her educational accomplishments, made her a welcome presence in all homes 
and circles. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 89 

That Washington loved Nellie as fondly as if she had been his own child, ail the 
accounts we have of their intercourse fully attest. Their companionship was one of 
uninterrupted harmony. She won him to her by the sweetness of her disposition, her 
easy and graceful manners, her cheery converse, and the lavish measure of her appreci- 
ation of all his kindly solicitude for her. 




e™~6-***4- 



{At three score-and-ten. , 



/ 



f^£ /, 



M- I. NELLIE CUS1 IS. 



90 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



Mrs. Lewis after the death of her husband which occurred Nov. 20. 1830, left the Wood- 
lawn home and went to Audlev a fine old estate of 1600 acres in Clarke county, Va. 
Where she lived until her death in 1852. 

Of Lawrence Lewis, Foote in his "reminiscences" says: "I remember him well 
and entirely concur with those who supposed him to exhibit a remarkable likeness to 
his uncle the General, at least he was in appearance so much like the best pictures of 
AVashington that any one might have imagined he had actually sat for them." 

Here is one of the quaint songs Miss Nellie used to sing to her accompaniment on 
the harpsichord still to be seen in the Music Room at Mount Vernon. 

The Traveler at The Widow's Gate. 



"A traveler stop't at a widow's gate ; 

She kept an Inn, and he wanted to bait ; 

She kept an Inn, and he wanted to bait , 
]!ut the widow she slighted her guest ; 
But the widow she slighted her guest ; 

For when nature wa~ forming an ugly race ; 

She certainly moulded the traveler's face 
As a sample for all the rest, as a sample for all the rest 
The chambermaid's sides they were ready to crack 
When she saw his queer nose and the hump on 
his back, 

A hump isn't handsome, no doubt, 
And though, 'tis confessed, that the prejudice goes 

Very strongly in favor of wearing a nose 



A nose shouldn't look like a snout. 
A bag full of gold on the table he laid 
'T had a wondrous effect on the widow and maid ; 

And they quickly grew marvelously civil — 
The money immedialely altered the case; 
They were charmed with his hump ami his snout 
and his face, 

Though he still might have frightened the devil. 
He paid like a prince, gave the widow a smack 
And flop'd on his horse at the door like a sack, 

While the landlady touching his chin 

Said "Sir, should you travel this country again, 
I heartily hope that the sweetest of men 
Will stop at the widow's to drink." 




AN IDEAL OF "OLD BELVOIR MANSION. 



OLD BELVOIR, THE HOME OF THE VIRGINIA FAIRFAXES. 



"Come back ye friends whose lives are ended ; 
Come back wi'h all that light attended 



Which seemed to darken and decay 
When you arose and passed away ! 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 91 

They come, the shapes of joy and woe, They make the dark and dreary hours 

The airy throngs of long ago — Brighten and blossom into flowers. 

The dreams and fancies known of yore j linger lone I love to be 

That have been, but shall be no more. Again in their fair company ; 

They change the cloisters of the night But ere my lips can bid them stay 

Into a garden of delight — They pass and vanish quite away." 

Come with me reader and linger for a space while I tell you a story whose beginnings 
were long before the drum's loud beat and the bugles echoing call summoned in haste 
the sturdy colonists, from the lowlands and mountains of old Virginia, to make ready 
for the coming struggle of the American Revolution; even before the British war fleet 
of Commodore Kepple came proudly sailing, the first of all others up the Potomac with 
the army of General Braddock, to wage war against the French and Indians in the 
Ohio valley. The story is not a story of love, though ladies fair and born of high de- 
gree, and men of knightly and chivalrous bearing, figure prominently in the interesting 
details. It is not a story of war, though some of its personnae were soldiers and had 
witnessed fierce encounters of armies in the old country, but it is a story of circumstances 
which were all important factors in the successful conduct of the seven years of heroic 
strife which opened the way, for the founding of the grandest government on the earth ; 
and it is a true story moreover, though it may have the tinge and character of romance. 

We will sit leisurely down by this grass and moss grown heap of earth and chimney 
stones, here under these gnarled oaks and cedars on the hill crest a hundred and fifty 
feet above the murmurings of the tide. Before us rolls on its seaward course the grand 
old river, broad deep and beautiful as when in 1608 the bold and reckless adventurer, 
Captain John Smith with his little company of fourteen explorers cut its shining waves 
with the prow of his open pinnace, upward bound to the regit /n of the powerful Piscata- 
ways and Mayonese on whose hunting grounds and war paths the cities of Washington 
and Alexandria now stand. 

These few trees around us are all that are left of the dense primitive forest, which was 
hewn down in the time when the smoke of the aboriginal wigwam went up in its midst, 
to give place to the plow and the hoe of the tobacco planter. They are now scarred by 
the cycles of time, but their branches even in decay are still far reaching and green, and 
will shield us well from the rays of the noontide sun while we recount the events of the 
many faded years. And now, while we are enjoying the cooling shadows, the fresh 
breezes and the natural sights around us, let us go back a hundred years before the sur- 
render of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Across the ocean, at that time in England 
when James the second was reigning and lands in the new world were to be had by 
favorites of the crown for merely the asking, it was ordered by the roval authority, in 
1688, that letters patent should be issued to Thomas, Lord Culpeper, previously a gov- 
ernor of Virginia for all that extensive domain known in history and geography as the 
Northern Neck of Virginia between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, compris- 
ing in its area the counties of Northumberland, Lancaster, Richmond, Westmoreland 
King George, Prince William, Stafford, Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Madi- 
son, Page, Shenandoah, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, Jefferson, Frederick and 
Clarke. 

From Lord Culpeper this tract or principality had descended through his daughter 
Catharine Culpeper Fairfax to her son Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax of his line, who was a 
person of note and distinction in the British realm, a man of learning, a graduate of 
Oxford College and a member of the celebrated literary club of which Joseph Addison 
was the chief spirit and to whose pen we are indebted for the Spectator. This right 
Hon. Thomas of Leeds Castle in the county of Kent, England and Baron of Cameron 
in Scotland was a cousin of Thomas, third Lord Fairfax, general of the parliamentary or 
"round head" armies of the protector, Oliver Cromwell, and who of course figured prom- 
inently in the military and Revolutionary circumstances of the beheading of King 
Charles first of England, January 30, 1649. 

By the terms of the original patent to Culpeper he was constituted sole proprietor of 
the "soil'" of this wilderness empire "together with all its forests, mines, minerals, 



92 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

huntings, fishings, and fowlings, with authority to divide, sell, grant or lease and occu- 
py at will, any or every portion thereof, always however to be and remain under alle- 
giance to the royal prerogative," as was the common phraseology of grants in the days 
of feudalism. A. royal gift indeed was this almost unlimited concession of empire to 
one royal subject. 

Lord Fairfax, although his most important interests had been transferred to Virgin- 
ia, was not ready at the time to make it his home and become an actual settler with the 
colonists of his inheritance, but as great numbers of squatters and freebooters were al- 
ready settling on his lands and claiming them as estates in fee through tact of occu- 
pation, and by connivance of irresponsible agents, he commissioned his cousin Col. 
William Fairfax, already a resident of the colony, to look after his western possessions. 
William, born 1691, was a son of Henry, second son of the proprietor's father and Anne 
Harrison of South Cave, Yorkshire whose sister Eleanor became the wife of Henry 
Washington. He lost his father when quite young, but his education was not neglect- 
ed. His uncle. Sir John Lowthers, had him entered in his college where he pursued a 
course of instruction which served him well in the varied occupations of his future 
years. By extensive reading and seven years of travel and study in foreign lands, his 
mind was enriched and ripened and his abilities and courtly ways secured for him many 
public positions of trust and profit both in the old and new world. Of an ancient 
English family, he had entered the British army at the age of twenty-one and subse- 
quently had served with honor in the royal navy both in the East and West Indies ; 
had officiated as governor of New Providence after having aided the town from the in- 
cursion of pirates ; also had done good service for his sovereign, Queen Anne, under 
Col. Martin Belden ; and after coming to Belvoir we find him a member of his majes- 
ty's honorable council of Virginia and at one time its presiding officer. 

While residing in the Bahamas, as chief justice of the islands he was married to Sa- 
rah, daughter of Col. Walker of Nassau, who accompanied him to England in 171 7 and 
afterward to New Salem in the province of Massachusetts Bay where he filled an ap- 
pointment as collector of his majesty's customs from 1725 to 1734. By Sarah, his first 
wife, he had four children. George William the eldest was born in Nassau in T724. 
The other three, Thomas, Anne and Sarah were born in Salem. Thomas was an offi- 
cer in the royal navy and was killed in a naval engagement. Anne was married to Law- 
rence Washington and was the first mistress of Mount Vernon, and Sarah was married 
to John Carlyle of Alexandria, Virginia, who was a major and commissary in the 
French and Indian war under General Braddock in 1755. The mother of these chil- 
dren died in 1747. Their father was again married shortly afterward to Deborah 
Clarke, daughter of the Hon. Bartholomew Gedney and widow of Francis Clarke of 
Salem, to whom she had been married in 1701 and with whom she had lived twenty-six 
years. She was an intimate friend of Sarah, the first wife, who had expressed the de- 
sire on her death bed that she might take her place. By this second wife, William 
Fairfax had three children, Bryan, who by the death of Robert, seventh lord, elder 
brother of Thomas, sixth lord, without issue, in England, became eighth lord Fairfax, 
born in 1737 and died at Mount Eagle near Great Hunting Creek in 1802. William 
Henry, and Hannah who was married to Warner Washington cousin of the General. 
William Henry was a young man of great promise and it is related of him that at the 
storming of Quebec under General Wolfe, just before the action commenced, Wolfe, his 
commander, approached him and said — "young man on this day remember what is ex- 
pected of your name." He was true to his trust and fell gallantly under the city's walls. 

It was about the year 1734 or 35 that William Fairfax assumed the duties as agent 
of his cousin on the Baron's large Virginia estate. Out of this estate a manor of sev- 
eral thousand acres immediately adjoining Mount Vernon and stretching for miles 
southward along the river had been assigned to him by the proprietor as a gift in per- 
petuity and here he came about the year 1736 to establish a home which in time 
was to become prominent and famed in the new world's annals. To this spot where we 
are gathered by these gnarled oaks and where the heaps of blackened hearthstones re- 
main a silent but melancholy witness to the past, duly repaired the builders and erect- 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



93 



ed a mansion ; and surely no more desirable site could have been selected for a resting 
place in many a day of travel. It is high, regular and commanding and the landscapes 
of the majestic river with its abrupt or gently sloping shores alternating with farm clear- 
ings and woodlands never fail to please the eye of the beholder, and most appropriately 
it was named Belvoir (beautiful to see). But an additional reason for so naming it was 
pleasant associations of Belvoir castle one of the most prominent of the old English cas- 
tles, and one of the finest of the present day. 



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The manorial residence which William Fairfax built was one of ample dimensions 
and appointments for that early time. Washington in one of his diaries incidentally 
tells us that it "was built of bricks, was of two stories and an attic with four conveni- 
ent rooms and a wide hall on the lower floor, five rooms and a wide passage on the 
nil floor, with spacious cellars and convenient offices, kitchens, quarters for ser- 
vants, coacherie, stables and all other out- buildings needed on a great estate : and that 



!)4 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

there was a large garden adjacent, stored with a great variety of fruits all in good 
condition. 

The writer visited the ruins of the home in the spring of 1894 and traced out, and 
measured the foundations, and found them to be of the following dimensions : the 
foundations of the main building, sixty by thirty-six feet, with walls twenty-seven 
inches thick and cemented with mortar made from oyster shells, which had become ex- 
tremely hard and tenacious. The cellar had occupied the whole area, and was seven 
feet deep, with partition walls twenty-four inches in thickness, with pavements of 
bricks seven inches square and four inches thick. Outside of the gable walls were 
heaps of quarry stones, denoting that there had been outside chimneys with large foun- 
dations. Everything about the parts of the walls still left inact, told of massiveness. 
Large trees had grown up from the debris inside of the foundations, and briars every- 
where trailing, gave to the spot a desolate appearance. The mansion had been en- 
closed by a wall of bricks, the wide foundations of which may still be traced through 
their entire extent of one hundred and fifty by one hundred feet. Adjacent are the 
ruins of five other brick buildings, presumably the great kitchen, the coachene, and 
quarters for the house-servants ; and in front, on the river bank, two hundred feet a- 
bove the rippling tide, were the ruins of the summer house, which had commanded so 
many pleasant views and fair prospects. There is but an acre or so of cleared ground 
about the ruins. This must have been the site of the "garden," for there were thou- 
sands of daffodils waving their golden petals in the morning breeze, just as they had 
done when my Lady Fairfax was wont to tread those now neglected paths in the long, 
long years before. Through all the times of the coming and going of the many spring 
times, they had faithfully kept up their bright successions, and were yet remaining, si- 
lent mementoes of the kindly care of vanished hands. But every vestige of the choice 
fruit trees, described by Washington had disappeared, saving some veteran pear and 
cherry trees, which were yet thrifty- looking and white with bloom. A grape-vine 
eight inches in diameter was still vigorous by the fallen walls, its branches again put- 
ting forth buds with the return of another spring. The wells, from out of whose cool- 
ing depths so many refreshing draughts had been drawn by the "old oaken bucket" 
for man and beast, were choked and dry. The desolation was complete. But the 
morning sun was shining warm and radiant over it all. The buds of the forest boughs 
were opening into foliage. The glad spring birds were lightly flitting, and chirping 
their songs of love ; and hard by, the rippling waters of the beautiful river, were hur- 
rying on in their seaward course, just as when the watchful eyes and careful hands of 
the masters were there, to order and direct all things aright. 

In the woods near adjoining, rows of sunken mounds indicated the family burial- 
place. A score of graves may still be counted, without stone or vestige of enclosure. 
The marble slabs which had marked the last resting-place of William Fairfax and Deb- 
orah, his wife, the first master and mistress, and which had remained inact until a (e\v 
years before the war, had been sacrilegiously broken up and carried away. 

The inscription read as follows : 

"HERE REST THE REMAINS OF DEBORAH CLARKE FAIRFAX WHO DEPARTED THIS TROUBLESOME LIFE 

ON THE FOURTEENTH DAY "1 1 747 IN THE SIXTY-SEVENTH YEAR OF HER AGE. 

SHE WAS THE WIDOW OF FRANCIS CLARKE OF NEW SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS COLONY, AND LATE WIFE 
OF WILLIAM FAIRFAX, ESQ., COLLECTOR OF His MAJESTY'S CUSTOMS ON THE SQUTH POTOMAC, 

AND ONE OF THE KING'S HONORABLE COUNCIL OF VIRGINIA. IN EVERY STATION OF LIFE 

SHEWAS WORTHY OF IMITATION. A FAITHFUL AND LOVING WIFE. THE BEST OF MOTHERS. 

A SINCERE AND AMIABLE FRIEND. IN ALL RELIGIOUS DUTIES WELL INSTRUCTED AND 

OBSERVANT, AND HAS GONE WHERE ONLY SUCH VIRTUES CAN BE REWARDED." 

The tablet over the grave of the proprietor and master of the homestead who died 
1757 disappeared long before that of the mistress. Some portions of the old enclosure 
were still lying around the burial place and with these the writer improvised a rude 
cross over the remains of the two, as represented in the picture of the place, and gathering 
some wild flowers blooming near by, strewed them about with kindly regard to light up 
for the hour at least, the utter loneliness of the spot. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 95 

Surely this place of sepulture, presenting in its loneliness and neglect so saddening a 
contrast to the kindly, reverential care which has been bestowed by a grateful people 
upon the home and last resting place of his neighbor and early companion, George 
Washington, deserves a fitting enclosure, and should receive at the hands of friends and 
descendants that care and loving attention which the eminent worth and characters of 
the sleepers there entombed so well deserve. Who then of all Virginians who fondly 
cherish the memories of the ante-revolutionary days and revere the men who were in- 
strumental in evolving their state and national governments from colonial chaos will 
now come forward and initiate a movement for the accomplishment of this object. Not 
only should an inclosure be provided, but a monument to their memory as well. 




GRAVES OF WILLIAM AND DEBORAH FAIRFAX. 

"Where shall once the wanderer weary Or upon some lonely seashore 

Meet his resting-place and shrine : Rest at last beneath the sands ? 

U.ider palm trees hy the Ganges, 'Tis no matter! God's wide heaven 

Under lindens of the Rhine ? Must surround me there as here: 

Shall I somewhere in the desert And as death lamps o'er me swinging 

Owe my grave to stranger hands? Night by night the stars burn clear." 

The old road running down from the mansion to the river's edge over which Wash- 
ington so frequently passed in his visits by water to his friends the Fairfaxes with whom 
he was on the most intimate and cordial relations, may still be traced through a growth 
of pines, oaks and cedars. 

Here at Belvoir in those primitive times lived like feudal magnates, the representa- 
tives of the honorable Fairfax family, who marrying and giving in marriage with other 
noted scions of Virginia, saw their wealth and influence steadily increase as the years 
passed on. 

As we behold the mansion now, in imagination after the lapse of a century and a 
half, with the help of not only Washington's description, but with that of accounts 
gathered from old inhabitants of the neighborhood, many years since dust, and with 
the aid of the tracings of the ruins already described, our idea is that of a stately 
manor house, very similar, in outline and finish, to most of the colonial dwellings 
still to be seen in Virginia, down to two generations ago. It has two stories and 
an attic, with steep over jutting roofs, dormer windows, and huge outside chimneys 
of stone. There are belfry, and outlook, and ample verandas, for the summer breezes, 
and views of the near flowing river. Within, the halls and rooms are spacious, with 
'i^h cedings, wainscoted and panelled walls, and the fireplaces are wide for warmth 
<.md cheery flames. This is our ideal of the "Belvoir House." There is not only a 



96 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

"fruit garden" as has been stated, with bountiful supply of varieties of fruits, but there 
is a garden of flowers where "my lady Fairfax" has her box-bordered beds of lady-slip- 
pers, sweet-williams, marigolds, shrubs, lilacs, and l he like; and there are winding paths, 
and carriage ways around the mansion, which lead down under the branches of great 
oaks, to the edge of the rippling waters or out into the broad fields adjoining. 

As we see it, it was an inviting retreat, a home where taste and toil had well done 
their parts to beautify and adorn the surroundings. 

The apartments of the house judging from partial inventories of the household effects 
sold at two public sales in 1774, must have been furnished as comfortably and lux- 
uriously as any "Old England" manor house of that period. The purchases 
made by Col. George Washington in August, 1774, alone amounted to nearly two 
hundred pounds sterling. They were as follows : 

1 mahogany shaving desk \£, I settee bed and furniture 1T>£, 4 mahogany chairs 4^, I chamber car- 
pet l£ Is, I oval glass with gilt frame in the "green room" 4^ 5s, I mahogany chest and drawers in Mrs. 
Fairfax's chamber 12^ 10s, 1 mahogany sideboard 12^ 5s, 1 mahogany cistern and stand 4^, 1 mahogany 
voider, a dish tray and knife tray l£ ios ; 1 Japan bread tray 7s, 12 chairs and 3 window curtains (rum 
(lining room 31 £, I looking glass and gilt frame i$£ 5s, 2 candle sticks and a bust of Shakespeare l£ 6s, 
3 floor carpets m gentlemen's room t,£ 5s, I laige carpet 11^, 1 mahogany wash desk, &C., \£ 2s 6d ; I 
mahogany close stool i£ IOS, 2 malresses $£ ios, I pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, $£ ios ; I 
pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, 3^ 17s 6d ; I pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, 1^ 17s 
(3d; I pair dog irons in great kitchen $£, I hot rache4^, 1 roasting fork 2s 6d. 1 plate basket 3s, I mahog- 
any spider make tea table l£ lis, I screen Ios, 1 carpet i£ 15s. J pair bellows and brush Us, 2 window 
curtains 2/", I large marble mortar I £ Is, I hot rache in cellar i£ 7s 6d, 2 mahogany card tables ^£, 
I bed, pair of blankets, 19 coverlets, pillows, bolsters and I mahogany table, 11^ ; bottles and pickle pots 
14s, 1 do/en mountain wine l£ 4s, 4 chariot glasses frames 12s 6d, 12 pewter water plates l£. 

Another inventory of the Belvoir house furniture is given by Conway in his "Barons of the Potomac." 
This was sold at a public sale in December of 1774. 

In the dining room — 1 mahogany 5 ft. sideboard table $£ 5s, 1 pair mahogany square card tables 5^, 
5s, I oval cistern on frame i£ 17s, I knife tray 6s, 1 scalloped mahogany stand 14s, 2 dish trays 1 £ 12s, I 
large mahogany cut rim tea tray i£ ios, I sconce glass, »ilt in burnished gold, 15^ ; 12 mahogany chairs 
\"1 £, 12 covers for chairs l£ ios, 3 crimson marine drapery curtains U^ 5s, 1 laige wiltou Persian carpet 
Cj£ 15s, 1 pair tongs, shovel, dogs and fender l£ ios. 

In the parlor — I mahogany table and 1 glass to take off t,£ 15s, 1 mahogany spider leg table 2£ 5s, 1 
folding tire screene lined with yellow l£ Is, 2 mahogany aim chairs $ £ 5s, I chimney glass IO^", dogs, 
tongs, shovel and fender, 2£ 14s 6d ; 2 Saxon green plain drapery curtains $£. 

In Mrs. Fairfax's chamber — I mahogany chest of drawers S£ ios, 1 bedstead and curtains Ss, window cur- 
ains i£ 15s, 4 chairs $£ 2s, covers for same 8s, I dressing table io,£, I pair dogs, shovel and tongs, l£ 13s. 

In Col. Fairfax's drawing room — I oval glass in burnished gold $£ ios. 1 mahogany shaving table $£ 3s, 
1 mahogany desk, &c, lt>£ 16s; 4 chairs and covers 4£ 8s, I mahogany settee bedstead, Saxon green, 7 £ 
'8s, covers for same 9s, 1 mahogany Pembroke table l£ 18s, dogs, shovel, tongs and fender, l£ 13s 
utensils for kitchen 20^. 

Another inventory of many other articles of furniture we omit for want of space. 

As our readers may be curious to know something about the stock of literature in a 
gentleman's library as well as of the style of his household furniture one hundred and 
fifty years ago on the banks of the Potomac, we give the inventory of the books of 
William Fairfax in his Belvoir home as follows: Batavia illustrated, London Magazine, 
7 vols., Parkinson's Herbal, Knolle's History ot the Turkish Empire, Coke's Institutes 
of the laws of England, 3 vols., England's Recovery, Laws of the Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay, Laws of Merchants, Laws of Virginia, Complete Clerk and Conveyancer, Hawkm's 
Pleas of the Crown, Gunnel's Offences of the Realm of England, Ainsworth's English 
and Latin Dictionary, Haine's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Blackmore's Prince 
Arthur, History of the Twelve Cesars by Suetonius, John Calvin's Institution of Re- 
ligion, Fuller's Church History from its Rise, Locke on the Human Understanding, 
A New Body of Geography, Croope's Law Reports, Heylin's Cosmography in 4 vols. 
Collection of Voyages and Travels, Political Discourses by Henry, Earl of Monmouth, 
Wooten's State of Christendom, Hobart's Law Reports, Johnson's Excellency of 
Monarchical Government, Latin and French Dictionary, Langley's Pomona or 
Gardening, A Political Piece, Strada's History of the Low Country Wars, Spanish and 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 97 

English Dictionary, Latin Bible, A Poem on Death, Judgment and Hell, Knox's 
Martyrology, Jacob's Law Dictionary, Chamberlayne's Great Britain, Hughes's Natural 
History of Barbadoes, Laws of His Majesty's Plantations. The Way to get Wealth. 
This, in those early times of bookmaking, was doubtless considered not only an exten- 
sive library, but a learned one for a private home, and may be taken now as an index 
of the general drift and bent of the literary inclinations of the Belvoir Fairfaxes. It 
was all solid reading ; though in these days, when styles and tastes in literature are so 
widely different, it would be accounted very dry reading, and not of much value or in- 
terest by the general reader ; and one cannot help speculating now, after the lapse of 
so long a time, how variously, in the mutations of the generations the quaint volumes 
of the collection were scattered after their sale, into what different hands they passed, 
and whether any of them are still in existence in any library of to-day. Doubtless 
they found their way in the course of years into the lofts and garrets of the surrounding 
neighborhoods, were over and over resold at public auctions and were eventually con- 
sidered as rubbish and went the ways of destruction. 

Lord Thomas Fairfax did not visit the new world until the year 1739, and then he 
did not come with a decided intention of permanently remaining. However, he spent a 
year in examining the country and then returned to England. But he had been so well 
pleased by his Virginia empire, its delightful climate, its virgin freshness and beauty, the 
fertility of its lands and their varied resources, that after settling up his personal affairs, 
disposing of his commission in the "Royal Blues" and giving to his cousin Robert, his 
Kentish estates, he determined to bid a long adieu to the home of his nativity — a 
longer one perhaps than he imagined it would be; tor he never recrossed the seas, but 
died forty years afterward, a veritable hermit in the Shenandoah valley at the extreme 
age of 93 years. For six years he tarried with his cousin and agent, William, in 
the newly erected mansion at Belvoir; and it was during some part of this time that 
he first met the youthful Washington, just fresh from the instruction of "Hobbs" and 
"Williams," who had taught him the mysteries of the three R's and a smattering of 
land surveying and had assured him doubtless that he was then ready to begin the 
great battle of life. And here it was that the great proprietor made a contract with 
the young graduate of fifteen to brave the perils and dangers of a but slightly explored 
wilderness, inhabited by treacherous Indians and half breeds, to assist his cousin, 
George William Fairfax, to survey and map out his remoter possessions in the Shenan- 
doah valley. 

Early in the year 1750 William Fairfax, accompanied by his son-in-law, Major John 
Carlyle, of Belle Haven, made a visit to England, from which place he wrote home a 
number of letters still extant, and which would be very interesting reading did space 
allow of their publication here in our story of Belvoir. 

George Wm. Fairfax born as already noticed in Nassau in 1724 succeeded on his 
father's death which occurred in 1757 to his large estate, and he was heir apparent to 
the Barony of Cameron. He had been educated in England as was then the usage 
with the sons of the wealthy colonists. Like his father William he had found favor 
among his neighbors on account of his many estimable qualities and from time to time 
he had served them in various public capacities of trust and honor. 

In 174S while a member of the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg he became ac- 
quainted with Miss Sarah Carey, daughter of Col. Wilson Carey, and in a letter to his 
cousin Lord Thomas Fairfax he wrote "Dear Cousin Tom, while attending at the 
General Assembly I have had several opportunities of visiting Miss Carey, and finding 
her an amiable person, and to represent all the favorable reports made of her, I address- 
ed myself and having obtained the young lady's and the parents' consent we are to be 
married on the 17th inst." 

In 1773, accompanied by his wife he went to England to look after some property he 
had recently inherited there. They never returned to Virginia, but both died and 
were buried at Bath, England, without issue, he in 1787, she in 181 1. 



98 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

On his way over he passed the ships which brought to the colonies the ill-fated 
cargoes of tea which were either burned or cast overboard in the harbors of Boston, 
Annapolis and Bridgeton. Washington consented to act as his agent at home in his 
absence, supposing the agency would be of but short duration. But owing to long de- 
lays in the settlement of his English affairs and the occurence of the political troubles of 
the colonies, be never returned to Virginia, although it had been his intention to 
do so and rebuild the Belvoir Mansion. He finally directed his agent, George Wash- 
ington to dispose of his household furniture and the stocks and fixtures of the plantation 
and to lease the premises of Belvoir. A sale was accordingly held on the estate in Au- 
gust, 1774, which continued twodays ; and a second sale was held in Decemberof the same 
year. The inventories of the articles of the household furnishings as far as can now be 
gathered have already been given. The property was then leased to Rev. Andrew 
Martin, a cousin, for a term of seven years, but in a short time after, the old home was 
destroyed by fire. The owner's long absence and the fact that the place was desolate, 
together with the excitement, and derangement of business incident to the revolutionary 
war, caused the whole estate to rapidly depreciate in value. The long and incessant 
cultivation of tobacco and corn crops, chiefly of the former, had absorbed the virgin 
fertility of the soil, and the broad fields which had formerly been so clamorous with 
the shouts and refrains of the negro gangs, one by one had lapsed back into wilder- 
ness conditions. 

It was very natural that Washington who had been so often a welcome guest in the 
cheerful, hospitable apartments of the now blackened and desolate walls should write 
to a friend shortly after of his great sorrow whenever he visited the ill-fated place. 
In that letter to one of the Fairfaxs in England lie says : "It is a matter of sore regret 
when I cast my eyes toward Belvoir, which I often do, to reflect that the former 
occupants of it with whom I lived in such harmony and friendship are there no more, 
and that the ruins can only be viewed as the mementoes of former pleasures." 

After the removal of George William Fairfax to England, Washington, in a letter to 
him in June, 17S6, thus expressed himself: "Though envy is no part of my nature, 
yet the picture you have drawn of your present home and way of living is enough to 
create a strong desire in me to be a participant in the tranquility and rural amusements 
you have described as your lot. 1 am getting into the latter as fast as I can, being 
determined to make the remainder of my life easy, let the affairs of it go as they may. 
I am not a little obliged to you for the assurance of contributing to this by procuring 
for me a buck and a doe of the best English deer ; and in regard to the offer of my 
good friend, Mrs. Fairfax, I have to say that I will receive with great pleasure and 
gratitude the seeds of any trees or shrubs she may be pleased to send me which are 
not natives of this country, but reconcilable to its climate ; and while rny attentions 
are bestowed upon the nurture of them, they would, if anything were necessary to do it, 
remind me of the happy moments I have spent in conversations on this and other sub- 
jects with your lady at Belvoir." 

Early in 1775 Washington relinquished the agency of the Belvoir estate, as his time 
was chiefly absorbed by the pressing duties imposed upon him by the imminence of the 
revolutionary struggle. 

Years ago this estate of Belvoir with its two thousand five hundred acresof good farming 
lands, passed from the hands of the Fairfax family ; and with the exception of about two 
hundred and fifty acres the entire area has lapsed back to a veritable wilderness, chiefly 
of pines andcedars, which have grown up from the ridges, still everywhere to be seen, 
of the old corn and tobacco crops. Once nearly every acre of its arable portions was 
under tillage, but as the impoverishing process of cropping without remuneration to the 
soil went on, through the generations, as was so often the case in old Virginia, the worn- 
out acres here and there were abandoned to the invasion of the wiry sedge grass and 
wild wood growth. The encroachments were slow but sure, for there were no hands to 
check nor stay their progress. Now, this wilderness is awaiting the coming of axes and 
hoes and ploughs which, in the hands of capable, industrious, and practical settlers, 
will reverse the order of nature, clear the cumbered lands, turn anew the kindly furrows, 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 99 

scatter again the seeds, gather again the harvests, and build up in the wastes, homes of 
comfort, with gardens and orchards, and all the surroundings which make rural life so 
pleasant and desirable. 

Almost within sight of the National Capital, lying on tide water, and near to the 
line of the new Electric Railway, the realization of all these possibilities cannot, we 
think, be so very remote; and some lover of the picturesque and beautiful, with histor- 
ic pride and veneration for the associations of the "dear, dead past beyond recall," 
which linger around the famous locality by the "grand old river," will, we trust, 
come with ample means and classic taste, and on the foundations of the old Fairfax 
home, erect a structure which will be worthy of the superb situation and the story of 
its memorable events. 

In 1814 what portion of the walls of Belvoir were left standing from the fire, were 
leveled by the shot from the British fleet of General Gordon when retreating down 
the river from the sacking of Alexandria. Little did George William think, such is 
the irony of fate, when at the beginning of the revolutionary struggle, with a leaning 
to the British side of the controversy, he passed out over the threshold of his stately 
home, on his way to England, that it would be soon burned, and that British shot and 
shell would finish up what the flames hud left of it to be destroyed. 

George William Fairfax, born 1724, was married to Sarah Carey, daughter of Col. Wil- 
son Carey of Celeys on James River, in 1748. A few years before the American Revo- 
lution he and his wife left Belvoir and went to England expecting to return, but never 
did. They died at Bath, he in 1787, she in 1811. 

The curious wayfarer of our time who strays by the site of the once stately mansion 
of Belvoir will find only fallen walls, blackened hearthstones, mounds of briar grown 
bricks and rubbish, to mark the historic spots where through so many years went on the 
long forgotten routine of domestic events and incidents of colonial life in the Fairfax 
family succession. Of all these events and incidents which would be fraught with so 
much interest to the present generation, only the most fragmentary accounts have come 
down to us through either written record or word of tradition. Only here and there a 
canvas memory — some familiar names, and some wandering, vague report of grace and 
loveliness and gallant exploit. Their failings are lost sight of and no longer dwell in 
living recollection. Let them so remain, bright images gilded by the sunlight of the 
past and clad in all their halo of romance — with nothing hidden by the distance but 
their human imperfections. We know that in connection with Mount Vernon, this 
home of the Fairfaxes was one of the chief social centres of the tide water region of the 
Old Dominion, with always open doors and a generous hospitality for the coming 
guest. We know that within its walls our Washington was an oftimes and welcome 
guest. From Mount Vernon it was but a few minutes' sail or pull with the oars ; and 
well he knew how to handle both. Here it was that he met the charming Miss Mary 
Carey, sister of Mrs. George Fairfax, and became conscious for the first time in his 
stripling years of the conquering fascinations of female charms, only to be denied after- 
wards the coveted privilege of being a suitor and claimant of the hand and heart of the 
young lady by the stern and unyielding father, who failed to perceive in the young 
aspirant a prospect of that wealthy and influential alliance which he had contemplated 
for his daughter. "His heiress," said the haughty old cavalier, "had been used to 
riding in her own chariot attended by servitors." The love-lorn youth pressed no 
more his claim after such an unexpected rebuff, and never saw her but once again. 
That was when he nodded to her pallid and fainting visage in a window of the old 
capital of Williamsburg, when he rode through on his triumphal march, with waving 
banners and music playing, from the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. W T e know 
also that Lord Thomas Fairfax, the proprietor, the scholar and graduate of Oxford, 
and the friend of Addison, the whilom devotee of fashion and gayety in old London 
town, and the jilted and inconsolable lover, was for years a dweller under the same 
roof. We know, too, that in those halls were gravely talked over and considered by 
many great minds of the time, various measures for the public weal in the infant colony 
preparatory to their proposal and final enactment in the House of Burgesses at the 



100 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



vice-regal capital cf Williamsburg. This is all of the story which has come down to us 
through the long lapse of the years. The rest of it for the most part is silent forever 
with the dust of the many actors ot those times. Some of it may still be preserved in 
musty letters and other papers in old lofts and garrets, some time, it may be. to be res- 
cued and unfolded for the curious listener by faithful chroniclers yet to come. But in 
our fondness for all such reminiscences of the olden times, we may go back in imagi- 
nation through the dim and shadowy vistas of the past, and giving loose rein to fancy, 



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let it summon up and reincarnate for us the many other guests of high degree 
who came and went from year to year over those thresholds as social or other occasions 
invited. 

Let us for a time be spectators within those old halls with their massive oaken doors 

and wide fireplaces, and their wainscoted and pannelled walls whereon hang fowling- 

i antlers of the chase, and from which look down ancestral faces, and appear 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 101 

pictures of old castles and scenes of battle. Many shadowy forms stand out in strange 
outline before our wondering visions. We smile at their quaint costumes and their 
ways of speech, but they are men and women well bred, with courtly manners and 
comely lineaments, and they please us well by their easy dignity and stately demeanor. 
They pass on and vanish. Another group comes up — a group of neighbors and friends 
listening intently to the "freshest advices" by the latest ships just in from London, 
Amsterdam, or Barbadoes to Alexandria or Dumfries, it may have been, after a voyage 
of weeks or months. The London Gazette informs them of the "wars and rumors of 
wars" in Europe, of the campaign in Germany and India, and of the course of hostili- 
ties between England and France ; and precious letters are read telling of how all is 
going with friends they left behind them in the homes so far away over the seas. 

The scene changes. Strains of music are floating on the air, and ladies fair, and gay 
gallants bow gracefully to each other and trip gaily through the mazes of the minuet. 
Meanwhile, as the music and the dance go on, my Lord Thomas sits complacently in 
his easy armchair, attired in velvet coat, and ruff, doublet and silken hose and buckles. 
His dancing days are over, for he has passed his threescore milestone, and his hair is 
well silvered o'er, but he watches intently the gliding figures over the oaken floor, 
and mayhap, his thoughts are far away in halls of Yorkshire or Kent, or old London, 
when in his heyday of life he, too, had tripped so gaily with the giddy girl who had so 
cruelly won his heart and then played him false for another. The old baron is genial 
and kindly to all, and everybody is fond of him and gracionsly defers to his lineage 
and experience. He chats pleasantly with the guests, delights in their merriment, and 
anon, in drowsy mood, goes nodding, and then passes away to the land of dreams. 
We linger si ill, and the scene again changes. The blessed Christmas tide comes round. 
The busy note of preparation is rife in parlor and kitchen, the hickory yule logs are 
piled and lighted, and their cheery and warming flames go trooping up the great stone 
chimneys into the midwinter night. The holly branches and mistletoe boughs are 
hung on the walls. Genial and convivial friends, young and old, come in from anear 
and afar, and there is full measure of kindly feeling and good cheer and a jocund time 
for all. The bountiful board smokes as in old Edgland's manorial homesteads, with 
savory venison, wild turkey, and the wild boar's head from the surrounding forests. 
As we wait still longer in the shadows of the old mansion we may give still wider range 
to fancy, and call up to view scenes of mirth and rejoicing, as when joyous bridal bells 
were chiming ; or scenes of sorrow and mourning, as when funeral bells were tolling. 
And, waiting still longer with the coming and going of the years, we may note the 
passing out over the threshold of the old mansion its master and mistress, to take that 
long voyage across the ocean which was to separate them forever from their Virginia 
home. And yet a little longer we will wait, till the household heirlooms and treasures 
are sold under the hammer of the auctioneer and are scattered widely over the lands, 
and finally, till that baleful day comes, when those storied walls go down in fire and 
crumble to dust, and there is an end to all the times of glad meetings and good cheer 
— of all the times of song and music and the dance, and of all the kindly greetings and 
farewells at the ancient homestead of Belvoir. 

The years Upon the strong man, and the haughty form 

Have gone, and with them many a glorious throng Is fallen, ami the Hi shing eye is dim,— 
( II happy dreams. Their mark is on each brow, They trod the hall of revelry, where throng'd 
Their shadows in each heart. In their swift course The bright and joyous, and the tearful wail 
I h v waved their sceptres o'er the beautiful, Of stricken ones is heard where erst the song 

And they are not. They laid their pallid hands And reckless shout resounded. 

These are only the pictunngs of fancy, and to many they may seem idle and vague, 
even foolish ; but they are picturings which some of us love to linger over, and are loth 
to let piss from our visions, for they touch responsive chords of our hearts and set 
them to rhythm and accord with all that belongs to those remote but cherished times ; 
and as the vistas lengthen and grow dimmer we shall but cling to them and love them 
all the more. 

Scattered over the tide-water region of Virginia, are hundreds of such heaps of bricks 
and stones, as those to be seen on the site of the old house of Belvoir we have been de- 



102 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



scribing; and they arrest the attention of the thoughtful passer and tell to him mute 
but pathetic and impressive stories of the past, of rural mansions, of the great Virginia 
estates where culture, refinement, and a generous hospitality abounded. Only a few ot 
the typical old buildings remain for us, and these are passing rapidly from view, and 
the time is not far distant when the last of these landmarks of the vice-regal and revo- 
lutionary times will be no more. 

GREENWAY COURT. 

WHERE LORD THOMAS FAIRFAX LIVED. 

Not far from the little village of Milwood, in the Shenandoah Valley, there stood a 
few years ago an ancient mansion of peculiar interest. It was plainly a relic ot the re- 
mote past — quaint in style, and suggestive to the beholder of strange circumstances and 
histories. Tall locusts of a century's growth surrounded it, and waved their spreading 
branches over its steep roof and windows. 

This ancient mansion was 
once the home of an English 
nobleman, who only chanced to 
live' in Virginia, and did not 
directly influence to any con- 
siderable measure the events of 
the period in which he was an 
actor. And what, it may be 
asked, had Thomas, Lord Fair- 
fax, Baron of Cameron, the 
sixth of the name, of Greenway 
Court, in the Shenandoah Val- 
ley, to do with the history of 
this era? What did he per- 
form, and why is a place de- 
manded for him in our annals? 
The answer is not difficult. 
With this notable person who 
has passed to his long rest, and 
lies nearly forgotten in the old 
church at Winchester is con- 
nected a name which will never 
be forgotten. His was the high 
mission to shape in no small 
measure the immense strength of 
George Washington. His hand 
pointed attention to the rising 
planet of this great life, and 
opened its career toward the 
zenith — the planet which shines 
now, the polar star of our liber- 
ties, set in the stormy skies of the 
Revolution. The brilliance of 
that star no man can now in- 
rHOMAS.sixTH LORD fairfaj crease nor obscure, as no cloud 

From a painting in the Masonic Lodge Room. can dim it, yet, once it was un- 

known, and needed the assistance, which Lord Fairfax afforded. 

Any account of the youth of Washington must involve no small reference to the old 
fox-hunting Baron who took an especial fancy for him when he was a boy of sixteen, 
and greatly aided in developing his capabilities and character. Fairfax not only thus 
shaped by his counsels the unfolding mind of the young man, but placed the future 
leader of the American Revolution in that course of training which hardened his mus- 
cles, toughened his manhood, taught him self-reliance, and gave him that military re- 




OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



10? 



pute in the public: eye, which secured for him at a comparatively early age the appoint- 
ment of commander-in-chief of the Continental armies overall competitors. First and 
last, Fairfax was the fast and continuing friend of Washington, and not even the strug- 
gle for independence in which they espoused opposite sides, operated to weaken this 
regard. In imagination let us look at this old house in which Lord Thomas passed 
about thirty years of his bachelor life. It stands before us on a green knoll — solitary, 
almost, in the great wilderness, and all its surroundings impress us with ideas of pioneer 
life and habits. It is a long, low building, constructed of the limestone of the region. 




A rowof dormer windows stands prominently out from its steep over-hanging roof, and 
massive chimneys of stone appear outside of its gables which are studded with coops 
around which swarm swallows and martins. From the ridge of the roof rise two belfries 
or lookouts, constructed probably by the original owner to give the alarm in case of an 
invasion by the savages. Not many paces from the old mansion was a small log house 
in which the eccentric proprietor slept, surrounded by his dogs, of which he was 
passionately fond; the large edifice having been assigned to his steward. A small 



104 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

cabin of stone near the north end of the house was his office ; and in this he trans- 
acted all the business of his vast possessions, giving quit-rents, signing deeds, 
and holding audiences to adjust claims and boundary lines. Scattered over the 
knoll were the quarters for his many servants. And here in the midst of dogs 
and horses, backwoodsmen, Indians, half-breeds, and squatters, who feasted daily 
at his plentiful board, the fine gentleman of Pall Mall, the friend of Joseph Addison, 
passed more than a quarter of a century. He lived in this frontier locality the life 
of a recluse. He had brought with him an ample library of books, and these were 
welcome companionship for him in his solitary hours. Ten thousand acres of land 
around his unpretentious lodge he had allotted for a manorial estate, with the design 
at some time of erecting upon it a castle for a residence. This design he never exe- 
cuted. 

At the age of twenty-five, Lord Fairfax was one of the gayest of the young men of 
London society. He went the rounds of dissipation with the fondest enjoyment, and 
was considered one of the finest beaux of his day. He was well received by all classes. 
Young noblemen, dissipating rapidly their patrimonial substance, found in him a congen- 
ial companion in their intrigues and revels. Countesses permitted him to kiss their 
jewelled hands ; and when he made his bow in their drawing-rooms, received him with 
their most patronizing smiles. But our young lord after a time found himself arrested 
in his gay round of pleasures in the haunts of silk stockings and hooped petticoats, 
He had revolved like a gaily-colored moth about many beautiful luminaries without 
singeing his wings, but his hour of fate came. One of the beauties of the time trans- 
fixed him. He circled in closer and closer gyrations. His pinions were caught in 
the blaze, and he was a hopeless captive. My Lord Fairfax no longer engaged in re- 
vels or the rounds of dissipation, but like a sensible lover accepted the new conditions, 
and sought only to make everything ready for a life of real happiness in the nuptials of 
two loving and confiding hearts. He turned resolutely from the frivolous past and 
looked only to the promising future, which he saw as if unfolding something higher 
and more substantial for his achievement and enjoyment. Then the real sweetness and 
depth of his truer nature revealed themselves from beneath the wrappings of dissipation 
and vice. He gave up everything which had pleased him for this woman : and all that 
he now asked was permission to take his affianced away from the dangerous atmosphere 
of the court, and to live with her peacefully as a good nobleman of the provinces. He 
loved her passionately, and wished to discard all who threatened to interfere with the 
exclusive enjoyment of her society. All his resources were taxed to supply the most 
splendid marriage gifts; and absorbed in this delightful dream of love, his happiness 
was raised to the empyrean. But he was destined to have a sudden awakening from his 
dream, a terrible, almost fatal fall from his cloudland. He had expended the wealth 
of his deep and earnest nature on a coquette — his goddess was a woman simply — and 
a very shallow one. She threw Fairfax carelessly overboard, and married a nobleman 
who won her by the superior attractions of a ducal coronet. Thus struck doubly in 
his pride and his love, Fairfax looked around him in despair for some retreat to which 
he might fly and forget in a measure his sorrows. London was hateful to him, the 
country no less distasteful. He could not again plunge into the mad whirl of the one, 
nor rust away in the dull routine of the other. His griefs demanded action to dissipate 
them — adventure, new scenes — another land was needed. This process of reflection 
turned the young man's thoughts to the lands in far away Virginia which he held in 
right of his mother, the daughter of Lord Culpeper, to whom they had originally been 
granted ; and finally he bade adieu to England and came over the seas. Such were 
the events in the early life of this gentleman which brought him to Virginia. 

The house of Belvoir to which Lord Fairfax came was the residence, as has already 
been stated, of William Fairfax his cousin, to whom he had intrusted the manage- 
ment of his Virginia lands. Lawrence Washington, the eldest brother of George had 
married a daughter of William ; and now commences the connection of the already 
aged proprietor and the boy of sixteen who was to lead the armies of the Revolution. 
Washington was a frequent inmate of the Belvoir home, and the boy was the chosen 
companion of the old Lord in his hunting expeditions. In the reckless sports of the 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



105 



field the proprietor seemed to find the chief solace for his love-lorn griefs. Time slow- 
ly dissipated his despairing recollections, however, and now, as he approached the 
middle of that century, the dawn of which had witnessed so much of his misery, the 
softer traits of his character returned, and he was to those for whom he felt regard a 
most delightful and instructive companion. Almost every trace of personal attraction, 
though, had left him. Upwards of six feet in stature, gaunt, raw-boned, near-sighted, 
with light grey eyes, and a sharp aquiline nose, he was scarcely recognizable as the ele- 




gant young nobleman of the days of Queen Anne. But time and reflection had mel- 
lowed his mind, and when he pleased, the old gentleman could enchain his hearers 
with brilliant conversation, of which his early training and experience had given him 
very great command. He had seen all the great characters of the period of his youth, 
had watched the unfolding of events and studied their causes. All the social history, 
the scandalous chronicles, the private details of celebrated personages had been famil- 



106 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



iar to him, and his conversation thus presented a glowing picture of the past. Some- 
thing of cynical wit still clung to him, and the fireside of Belvoir was the scene of 
much satiric comment between the old nobleman and his cousin William. But Fair- 
fax preserved great fondness for youth, and took especial pleasure in the society of our 
George of Mount Vernon. He not only took him as a companion in his hunts, but 
liked to have the boy with him when he walked out ; and it may be easily understood 
that the talks of the exile had a deep effect upon young Washington. 

The import of Lord Fairfax's connection with the future commander-in-chief lies 
chiefly in the commission which he intrusted to Geo. Wm. Fairfax his cousin, and Wash- 
ington, the boy of seventeen, that of surveying and laying out his vast possessions in 
the Shenandoah Valley. Providence here as everywhere seemed to have directed the 
movements of man to work out His own special ends. This employment as surveyor on 
the wilderness frontiers was the turning-point in the young man's life, and the results 
of the expedition of three years in its influences on his habits and character, the infor- 
mation and self-reliance it gave him, and the hardships it taught him to endure are 
now the property of history. 

It is not a part of our design to follow the young surveyor in his expedition which 
led him from Greenway Court to the headwaters of the Potomac where Cumberland 
now stands, and thence into the wilderness of the "Great South Branch," a country as 
wholly unknown as it was fertile and magnificent. He returned to Mount Vernon a 
new being, and the broad foundation of his character was laid. 

The first act of his eventful life had been played — the early lessons of training and 
endurancethoroughly learned — theground work of his subsequent exertionsfixed; and the 
prudence, courage, coolness, and determination which he displayed on thisarena, made 
him general in-chief when the crisis came, of the forces of the Revolutionary struggle — - 
Lord Fairfax had given him the impetus. From him he had received the direction of 
his genius, and to the attentive student of these early events the conviction becomes 
more and more absolute that Lord Fairfax was the great "influence" of his life. And 
the interest attaching to the career of this noble patron consists chiefly in his connection 
with the life of the rising hero. Hiving formed 
as we have seen in no small measure the character 
of the boy of seventeen he lived to receive the 
tidings that this boy had overthrown forever the 
dominion of Great Britain in America on the 
field of Yorktown. So had Providence decreed ; 
and the gray haired baron doubtless felt that he 
was only the humble servant in that all-powerful 
Hand. 

After Yorktown — after the supreme defeat of 
the proud English general by the lad whom he 
had trained, it was, as he said, "time for him 
to die." 

His death took place in 1781, at the age of 
ninty-two, and his body lies buried in the eld 
Episcopal churchyard at Winchester, Va. His 
barony and its prerogatives according to English 
law descended in the absence of a son to his 
eldest brother Robert, who thus became seventh 
Lord Fairfax. The latter died in Leed's Castle, 
England, 1791, without a son. The baronial 
title then fell to Rev. Bryan Fairfax, son of 
William Fairfax then dead, and brother-in-law of 
Lawrence Washington. 

His main and last residence in Virginia was 
Mount Eagle on a high eminence near Great Hunting Creek, Fairfax county. But 




Right lion. Rev. Bryan, Eighth Lord Fairfax. 

Courtesy of Miss F. M. Burke. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 107 

he had another homestead known as "Towlston Hall," a few miles above Alexandria, 
destroyed by fire just before the Revolution. He became the eighth Lord in descent, 
and died at Mount Eagle in 1802. He was probably buried in Ivy Hill Cemetry near 
Alexandria. On a tablet in this burial place erected by his granddaughter is the fol- 
lowing inscription : 

In Memoriam. 

Right Hon. Rev. Bryan, Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron 

and Rector of Christ Church, Fairfax Parish. 

Died at Mount Eagle, Aug. 7, 1802, aged 78. 

The Lord forsakf.th not the Saints. They are Preserved Forever. 

The last living heir to the title of Lord, in line of descent is Mr. Albert Fairfax of 
New York City. He has become by the recent death of his father, John Contee Fair- 
fax of Maryland, the twelfth Baron. 

The great landed estates of Lord Thomas Fairfax with their entails were in effect 
confiscated by the success of the American Revolution ; and the legislature of Virginia 
in 1785 passed an act in relation to the Northern Neck, declaring that the landholders 
within said domain "should be forever after exhonerated and discharged from all com- 
positions and quit rents for the same." This was the end of the millions of acres of 
the royal Culpeper patent. 

A daughter of Bryan Fairfax, "Sally," a favorite young friend of Washington, died 
in early womanhood. A son, Thomas, lived beyond the age of eighty and died at 
Vaucluse near Seminary Hill, Va. in 1846, a zealous convert to the doctrines of 
Swedenborg. He was a man of broad and liberal views of human duties. He lib- 
erated all the slaves belonging to his patrimonial estate and was the originator of the 
African colonization society. 

DESCENTOF THE FAIRFAX TITLE. 

The Fairfaxes have been prominent personages during a thousand years of English and American 
history. Coming down through that history we find mention of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton near Otley 
on the banks of the river Wharfe in Yorkshire. His eldest son Thomas was Knighted for distinguished 
service before the city of Rouen in 1594 and in 1625 was created by Charles, I, Lord Fairfax, 
Baron of Cameron, in the Scottish peerage. His son Ferdinando became second Lord Fairfax and was 
commander-in-chief of the parliamentary forces at the battle of Marston Moor in 1644. His son Thomas 
became third Lord Fairfax and was generalissimo of the armies of parliament under Oliver Cromwell in 
the war against the forces of Charles I. His name was on the list of judges to try tbe King, but he was 
not present at the trial. He died in 1671 and was succeeded in the title by his cousin Henry, fourth 
Lord Fairfax, of the cavalier branch of the family. This nobleman's eldest son Thomas, fifth Baron 
Fairfax, was married to Catherine, daughter of Lord Culpeper, and his son Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, 
became proprietor of the "Northern Neek" in Virginia. He came to Virginia just previous to 1740 
and lived the rest of his life, chiefly at Greenway Court in the Shenandoah Valley. His cousin Robert in 
England became seventh Lord, Bryan Fairfax son of William of Belvoir became eighth Lord. His son 
Thomas who died at an advanced age in 1846, succeeded to the title as ninth Lord. He was succeeded 
by his grandson Charles Snowden Fairfax, as tench Lord. The title after his death fell to his brother, 
John Contee Fairfax as eleventh Lord. The last of the line is his son Albert Kirby Fairfax, of New York 
City as twelfth Lord. 

WASHINGTON'S LAST VISITTO HIS MOTHER. 
HIS MIDNIGHT RIDE. 

He speeds at night when the world is still, A beacon bright as the guiding Star 

Over lonely plain and meadow and hill ; The Eastern Magi sought afar — 

His way is rugged and lonely and dim ; He sees the light of a mother's eyes 

But a friendly beacon is shining for him — Ever before his pathway rise ! 

Early on an April day of 17S9 a wearied messenger arrived in haste at the gates of 
Mount Vernon. He had ridden from the city of New York, a distance of over two 
hundred and fifty miles, partly in lumbering stage coaches and partly on horseback 
over a highway abounding in ferries and fording places and much of it very rugged 
and difficult of passage. 

The messenger was the venerable Charles Thompson, secretary of the Continental 
Congress, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He had been 
commissioned by the new congress under the Federal constitution to announce to Gen- 



108 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

eral Washington in his retirement, that he had been unanimously chosen to be the 
chief magistrate of the United States. 

The presence of the distinguished chief was urgently desired at the seat of govern- 
ment, and he immediately set himself about the arrangement of his domestic affairs 
preparatory to obeying the important summons. His new duties as president would 
make necessary a long absence from his home, in the distant metropolis, and he must 
hastily make a tour of inspection over his large estate to view the condition of his vari- 
ous plantations, note their prospects ior crops and give all needed directions to his 
overlookers, for he was as careful and methodical in the management of his acres as he 
had been in the campaigns of the Revolution. 

But he could not start on the long journey he had to make, until he had performed a 
sacred and very kindly duty. 

Always filial in his disposition and dutiful in his deep emotions of gratitude to the 
American people for their spontaneous expression of their confidence in his ability to 
again serve them, he did not forget his mother who had ever been to him the kind and 
affectionate counsellor and abiding friend, and who had proved so influential in shaping 
and directing his young inclinations after having been so early bereft of the care and 
parental guidance of his father. She was living at her rural home near Fredericksburg, 
fifty miles distant. And although it had been but a short time since he had looked upon 
her furrowed face and received her blessings, he felt that under the circumstances he must 
now again behold her. She was aged and infirm, and it might be the last opportunity for 
him to see her among the living. So, when the shadows ot evening had far lengthen- 
ed and disappeared athwart the fields, he mounted his fleetest horse, and accompanied 
by his faithful servant started on his mission in obedience to the promptings of that in- 
ward monitor which from boyhood he seemed always to have considered decisive. 

Passing the borders of his own pleasant domain he reached the wooded heights of 
Accotink as the last faint rays of the sunset were fading beyond the western hills. It 
was no broad highway that he had taken, with smooth, level turnpiked surface, albeit, 
it was the main stage road, the old "King's Highway" from Williamsburg, the provin- 
cial capital, up through the Northern Neck to the Shenandoah, and the road over which 
the early planters once rolled their tobacco wains, and drove their liveried coaches, or 
clattered fleetly with their thoroughbreds, though it was little better than a bridlepath, 
rough and vexatious to the wayfarer. But our rider was no stranger to its gullied ways 
and winding courses, since that time fifty odd years before, when a small boy four or five 
years of age with his father Augustine and his mother Mary, and his little sister Betty 
and his younger brother Samuel, he was brought up in the family carriage from the old 
homestead in Westmoreland to the new home at Epsewasson, two miles below where 
now stands the mansion of Mount Vernon, a home not then established, though it had 
been projected by Augustine the father. Over the same road, thirty years before, when 
a young man of twenty-eight, he had ridden in his coach and four from Williamsburg 
with his bride, the widow Martha Custis to her new home at Mount Vernon. 

Through the chill and lonely hours of the night did our Washington with the one 
great and controlling purpose in view ride on and on to his destination, sometimes 
through plantation clearing or straggling hamlet, and sometimes through stretches of 
woodland, fording or ferrying the many streams now deep and full with [the spring 
time freshets. 

At Colchester, eight miles away he drew in his horse's rein and tarried awhile for re- 
freshments for man and beast, with mine host of the "Arms of Fairfax" a hostelry still 
standing solitary in the wastes of the vanished town. When he again mounted his 
horse and clattered down the street of the drowsy hamlet to the banks of the Occoquan, 
the ferryman made haste to set the distinguished wayfarer over the swiftly flowing 
stream, as many a time he had done before, and bid him speed over the hills and val- 
leys of Prince William. 

On and on he pursues his solitary way. He leaves behind him the highlands of ro- 
mantic Occoquan, and the roaring of its cascades die away in the distance. He cross- 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 109 

es the waters of the Neabsco, Quantico, Choppawamsic, Aquia, and Potomac creeks 
into the sandy lowlands of Stafford and Spottsylvania. 

As he sped fast through the watches of the night with no token or sound of life to re- 
lieve the stillness of the surroundings save here and there the glimmering light in lonely 
farm house or negro cabin, or the baying of watch dog or croaking of frog in the way- 
side fen, how profound and varied must have been the thoughts that drifted through 
the mind of the great man. 

For thirty years he had been prominently connected with the history of the colonies, 
had been through many years a member of the Virginia Assembly, had been a member 
ot the Continental Congress, had been conspicuously instrumental with other compat- 
riots in developing and successfully directing the spirit of independence under the op- 
pressive measures of Great Britain, had been commander-in-chief of the victorious 
American armies in the Revolution, and now was to be first President of the United 
States. 

The road he passed over was historic. In 1676 the armed rangers and colonists, of 
the Bacon Rebellion under the lead of his own great grandfather Col. John Washington 
had hurried to their bloody work at Assaomeck and Piscataway. Over a portion of it 
in 1716 had clattered the Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe under the gallant Spotts- 
wood to open a way for the white man through the Alleghanies to the great West. 
Later, in 1740, Virginia's contingent of provincials passed over it to join the forces of 
Admiral Vernon fighting the Spaniards at C'arthagena. Then in 1755 li na( ^ seen tne 
passing of other Virginia troops on their way with Braddock to fight the French and 
Indians on the banks of the Ohio, and in 1781 it was gay and noisy with the "conti- 
nentalers" going to and from Yorktown. 

Before the early dawn, Washington had finished his journey, and damp with the 
night airs, was standing at the gate of the maternal home on the borders of the Rappa- 
hannock. Of the notable interview between the honored chief and his aged mother, 
George Washington Parke Custis, his adopted son, has left us this enthusiastic and inter- 
esting narrative. 

"The President had come all unheralded and unannounced. After their first moment 
of greeting he said, 'Mother, the people of our republic have been pleased with the 
most flattering unanimity to elect me their chief magistrate, but before I can assume 
the functions of the office, I have come hastily to bid you an affectionate farewell, and 
to ask your maternal blessings. So soon as the weight of public business which must 
necessarily attend the beginnings of a new government, can be disposed of, I shall 
hasten back to Virginia' — and here the matron interrupted him with — 'And then you 
will not see me. My great age and the disease which is fast hastening my dissolution 
warn me that I shall not remain long in this world ; and I trust in God that I may be 
better prepared for another. But go George and fulfill the destiny which heaven ap- 
pears to have intended for you. Go, my son and may God's and a mother's blessing be 
with you to the end!' The President was deeply moved. His head rested fondly on 
the shoulder of his parent whose aged arm feebly but affectionately encircled his neck. 
Then the brow on which fame had wreathed the fairest laurels ever accorded to man, 
relaxed from its lofty bearing. That look which could have overawed a Roman Sen- 
ate, was bent in filial tenderness upon the time worn features of the faltering matron. 

He wept ! — a thousand recollections crowded upon his mind as memory retracing 
scenes long past, carried him back to the lowly homestead of his youth in Westmore- 
land where he beheld that mother whose care, education and discipline had enabled 
him to reach to the topmost height of laudable ambition. Yet how were his glories 
forgotten in the moment, his exploits and his victories, while he gazed upon her from 
whom he was soon to part to meet no more. Her premonition's were but too true. 
She passed away from earth in August of the same year, 1 789, at the age of eighty-five. ' ' 

Passing from the dear pathetic presence, and hurriedly retracing his way next morn- 
ing back to Mount Vernon, the President elect, perhaps did not hear the plaudits in 
the streets of Federicksburg. He rode all day and reached his home before evening. 



110 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

having exhibited his powers of endurance at the age of fifty seven, by riding over eighty 
miles in twenty-four hours. His good wife Martha in his absence had busied herself in 
making ready the necessary traveling equipage, and on the following morning, April 
1 6th, the President set out for New York, then the seat of the new Government. 

GUNSTON, THE HOME OF GEORGE MASON. 

"Twas an old colonial palace Through the thrilling land ; 

Ere that brazen boom In those days it was a great house, 

Thunder'd Freedom from the State House Spacious, feudal, grand." 

The next place of historic interest below the Fairfax home of Belvoir on the Poto- 
mac, is an estate which in its original entirety contained seven thousand acres and be- 
longed in the colonial days to Col. George Mason, the distinguished patriot, whose 
name is very prominent in early Virginia history, and especially in that portion of it 
which relates to the Revolutionary contest. He was not a soldier and had no aspira- 
tions for official dignity and honor, but he was a thinker and a most forceful writer, 
and better than all, a man of correct principles and honest purposes. 

On one of the commanding situations of his manorial domain he erected in t 758, a 
pretentious dwelling where for thirty-four years he lived in almost princely style, dis- 
pensing a generous hospitality to his wide circle of acquaintances in the colonies and 
devoting his time to his broad acres, the pursuits of literature, the promotion of neigh- 
borhood improvements and the dissemination of his liberal and popular ideas of colon- 
ial independence. 

The founder of the Virginia family of Masons of whom George Mason, the builder of 
Gunston Hall and fifth in line of descent, was a member of the long parliament dis- 
solved by Oliver Cromwell in the reign of Charles the first of England. Like Hyde 
and Falkland, though fully committed to the reformation of many of the then existing 
evils of the royal prerogative, he did not favor the overthrow of the monarchy; for 
when the two great factions of the kingdom came into armed conflict he organized a 
military body to defend his king against the measures of Cromwell and his party. 

After the disastrous battle of Worcester which sealed the fate of Charles, Mason fled 
in disguise with many others of the royal adherents from the English realm, and in 
165 1 found refuge in the province of Virginia, whither his family soon after followed 
him. He settled first in the county of Norfolk, but later moved to Pasbitansy on 
Acohic creek near the Potomac where he died and was buried. 

In 1676, the yearof Bacon's Rebellion, he commanded a force against the Indians and 
represented the same year the county of Stafford in the House of Burgesses. Stafford 
was carved out of Westmoreland the year before, and was so named by Mason in honor 
of his native county of Staffordshire, England. His eldest son also called George, was 
married to Mary, daughter of Gerrard Fowke of Gunston Hall, Staffordshire, England. 
The eldest son by this marriage also bore the name of George, the third of this name 
and like his father, lived and was buried on the patrimonial estate of Acohic. Their 
wills were recorded in Stafford county court in 1710 and 1715 respectively. 

George Mason the fourth in descent and eldest son of the last named, married a 
daughter of Stevens Mason of Middle Temple, attorney general of the colony of Vir- 
ginia in the reign of Queen Anne. He established a plantation in Dogue Neck on 
the Potomac, then in Stafford, now in Fairfax, on land which he had inherited, and was 
the Lieutenant and chief commander of the county of Stafford, in 1719. He was 
drowned by the upsetting of his sailboat. He left three children, two sons and a 
daughter, of these two sons one was George Mason of the Virginia convention and the 
other Thomas, hardly less celebrated than his brother, who settled in Loudoun county 
and was frequently a member of the Assembly, an eminent lawyer and a true patriot. 
His son, Stevens Thomson Mason was a member of the Virginia convention which 
adopted the Federal Constitution, and was a United States Senator as was also his son 
Armistead. 

George Mason of the text, the fifth of the name, was born in 1725, seven years be- 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



Ill 



fore Washington. At the age of twenty-five he was married to Anne Eilbeck of 
Maryland, aged sixteen. This was in 1750. She was said to have been a very estima- 
ble woman. .She died at the age of thirty-nine leaving children, George, Anne, Wil- 




112 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



liam, Thomson, Mary, Daniel, Sarah, John and Elizabeth. Of the sons, George, and 
Thomson of Hollin Hall served in the Continental Army, Thomas settled in Loudoun 
county. The last surviving son of John lived on Analostan Island opposite to George- 
town. He was the father of James Murray Mason who for years was United States 




Senator from Virginia ; who figured with Slid'ell in the famous Trent affair and was after- 
wards confederate commissioner to England. He died at Clermont, Fairfax county, 
1849 a g e d 43, years. His eldest daughter by his second wife became the wife of Samuel 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 1 1 3 

Cooper, Adjutant General of the Confederate Army. Another daughter married S. Smith 
Lee, brother of Robert E. Lee and was the mother of General Fitzhugh Lee. 

Col. George Mason was twice married. His second wife was named Brent but of 
this alliance there was no issue. His last years were made miserable by chronic gout. 
He died in 1792 and was buried in the family grave yard at Gunston, but no stone was 
set to mark his grave until a hundred years afterward. In 1896 through the instrumen- 
tality of the "Sons of the Revolution" a small graniteshaft was erected to the memory of 
the distinguished statesman and patriot. 

George Mason was one of the best and purest men of his time, and possessed the con- 
fidence of those younger civilians, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, whose opinions he did 
much to mould and shape along the lines which led to American Independence. He 
was a near neighbor to Washington and the Fairfaxes, and on the most intimate terms 
with them. In 1776 we find him writing to his agent in London a powerful statement 
of the wrongs inflicted by the mother government upon the colonies; and about the 
same time appeared his masterly exposition of "colonial rights," entitled "Extracts 
from the Virginia charters, with remarks upon them." In 1769 he drafted the "Arti- 
cles of Association" against importing British goods, which the Burgesses signed in a 
body on their dissolution by Lord Botetourt ; and in 1774 he drew up the celebrated 
Fairfax county resolutions, upon the attitude to be assumed, by Virginia. In 1776 he 
was elected to represent his county .in the convention of that year, and drew up the 
"Bill of Rights" already aliuded to which was adopted. Jefferson, then in Philadel- 
phia, had written "a preamble and sketch" to be offered, but Mason's had been re- 
ported;, and the final vote was about to be taken when it arrived. Mason's bill was 
therefore adopted, but Jefferson's "preamble" was attached to the Constitution. Ma- 
son sat afterwards in the Assembly, and supported Jefferson in his great reforms of 
organic laws, such as the cutting off ot entails, the abolishing of primogeniture, and the 
overthrow of church establishments. The disinterested public spirit of the man may 
: fbe inferred from the fact that, by birth and education, he belonged to the dominant 
class and to the Episcopal .Church. He also advocated the bill forbidding the further 
importation of slaves, in 1778, and ten years afterwards sat in the Convention to decide 
on the adoption or rejection of the Federal Constitution. He was elected one of 
the Senators for Virginia, but declined the honor on account of pressing home 
duties, and continued to reside on his Gunston estate. In the much admired group 
of sculptured heroes and statesmen which adorns State House Square in Richmond, his 
statue is conspicuous. 

George Mason with all his force of intellect; with his correct judgment of the pur- 
poses and actions of men, with his fine perceptions of right and wrong among individ- 
uals, commmunities and nations, which won for him the approval and admiration of all 
among whom he moved, and with his fitness for any position of public trust and confi- 
dence, was remarkably modest and unassuming. He was domestic in his attachments 
and inclinations, and cared more for 'the enjoyments of his home life than for the en- 
vied circumstances, often vexatious and forbidding which surround the politician and 
legislator. By his own fireside in the'midst of his family circle in his own manorial 
halls was the place of all others most dear to him. But withal, he was no recluse. He 
went often out from his fireside and circle and mingled freely with his friends at church, 
at elctions, at barbacues, and on other social occasions, and he loved to have them 
come and share under the roof of Gunston his large and cordial hospitalities. His library 
was extensive and varied for the time, and in it he found perennial delights. He was 
not a learned man according to the common acceptation of the term, but his knowledge 
of the world so far as he had delved and studied was very correct and practical. He 
was not an orator and never indulged in lofty flights of language to carry convictions 
but he had been endowed with a great store of strong common sense which he put forc- 
ibly into all the phrases of his public addresses and documents. He had an abiding 
interest in the affairs of his county and parish, and he co-ouerated earnestly with the 
founders of the towns of Alexandria and Colchester, the first stones of both of which he 
had seen laid in the wilderness. 

Letters of this sterling patriot to his children have been preserved and are replete 



114 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

with good advice and parental solicitude. One of them, a sample of them all, to his son 
John, a merchant in Bordeaux, France, and to whom he consigned cargoes of his planta- 
tion products, closes as follows: "Diligence, frugality and integrity will infallibly in- 
sure your business, and your fortunes. And if you content yourself with moderate 
things at first you will rise, perhaps by slow degrees, but upon a solid foundation." 

In his last will and testament he thus charges his sons: "I recommend to you from 
my own experience in life, to prefer the happiness of independence and a private station 
to the struggles and vexations of public business; but if either your own inclinations or 
the necessities of the times should engage you in public affairs, I charge you on a 
father's blessings, never to let the motives of private interest nor ambition induce you to 
betray, nor terrors of poverty nor disgrace nor fear of danger nor of death deter you from 
asserting the liberty of your country, and endeavoring to transmit to your country's 
posterity those sacred rights to which you were born." 

George Mason held many slaves, for he had numerous plantations under cultivation, 
requiring a vast amount of labor, and his exports of grain and tobacco to foreign mark- 
ets were on a large scale, but like his neighbors Washington and Jefferson he deplored 
the existence of the system in the colonies, for he foresaw clearly the consequences of 
its workings in the generations which were to come after him. He said in the Virginia 
convention: "This infernal traffic originated in the avarice of the British merchants. 
The British government constantly checked the attempts of Virginia to put a stop to it. 
The present question concerns not the importing states alone but the whole union. 
Maryland and Virginia have already prohibited the importation of slaves expressly. 
North Carolina has done the same in substance. All this would be in vain if South 
Carolina and Georgia be at liberty to import them. The western people are already 
calling out for slaves for their new lands and will fill their country with them if they 
can be got through those two states. Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The 
poor despise labor when it is performed by slaves. Thev prevent the migration of 
whites who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce the most pernicious 
effect upon manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the 
judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations can not be rewarded nor punished in 
the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects 
Providence punishes national sins by national calamities. I regret that some of our 
Eastern brethern have from a love of gain embarked in this nefarious traffic. I hold it 
essential in every point of view that the general government should have the power to 
prevent the increase of slavery." What his ideas of religious toleration were, may be 
learned from the last article in his BUI of rights. "Religion, or the duty we owe to 
our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and con- 
viction — not by force nor violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the ex- 
ercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that it is the mutual duty 
of all to practice christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other — Mason 
was a member of the church of England but his influences were for its disestablishment. 

Gunston Hall is one of the very few colonial dwelling places of the upper Potomac 
tide water region which are still standing as in the past, one stone upon another. But 
it has shared a better fate than the most of them, thanks to its enduring materials of 
construction and to two of its proprietors since the civil war, Col. Edward Daniels 
and Mr. Joseph Specht; it is now in as good condition as in the days of its builder and 
first master. Not only its interior of spacious apartments with their high ceilings, 
wainscotings and elaborate stairways have been put in pleasing order, but its exterior 
of quaint roofs and gables, and dormer windows and tall chimneys has been well cared 
for. The manorial domain of seven thousand acres which once belonged to it has 
dwindled down to only a few hundred. Long may the old historic landmark contin- 
ue through the mutations of time to call up to coming generations memories of a ster- 
ling, self sacrificing patriot whose potent influences in the shaping of the beginnings of 
our republic have never been sufficiently understood and recognized. 

The patriotic and curious pilgrim who wishes to visit this colonial shrine can board 
the steamer which plies daily between Washington and Mount Vernon. Or if he pre- 



OP VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 115 

fers going leisurely by land, he can in carriage take the old King's Highway at Alex- 
andria and visit in his way of eighteen miles, Mount Vernon, Washington's old mill 
at Epsewasson, Woodlawn, Belvior and the little hamlet of Accotink at the head of 
Accotink Bay where in the hostelry of "Royal George," long since gone to ruin, Wash- 
ington often met his neighbors after a barbecue or fox chase. The site of the van- 
ished town of Colchester on the Occoquan, seven miles below Mount Vernon will 
well repay a visit. 

The following lines were written by a sojourner under Gunston roof on a Christmas 
night a few years ago. 

I sat in Gunston Hall ; — I saw the hearthstone blaze. Each captive husband vied 

Grim shadows on the wall As in colonial days, With lover by his side, 

Around me pressed, In this old hall ; To own her sway, 

As memories of the past With beauty flashing high, Who practised less the art 

Came crowding thick and fast, And gallants thronging nigh, To win than keep a heart 

And to my mind, at last, As if some love-lit eye That once to Cupid's dart 

Their theme addressed. Held them in thrall. Had fallen prey ; 

Back from the shadowy land They seemed to grow apace While wives with sweethearts strove 

They pressed, a noble band, Like old Antenor's race, To keep the torch of love 

A stalwart race ; — Of Trojan fame ; In constant flame, 

I saw them come and go, Or men of lofty state, That, like sweet Omphale, 

As if they thought to show On whom the good and great They might retain their sway, 

Their stately grandeur to Bestowed their utmost weight And yet their lords obey 

My mind apace. Of honored name. By rightful claim. 

From wall and ceiling high, Then prouder forms were seen, So passed the shadowy throng, 

And ancient panel nigh, Of more majestic mien, — In misty group along, 

Their faces showed. Those grand old knights. As fancy played, 

I marked them, one and all, Whose sires at Runnymede Or pictured, one by one, 

Majestic, grand, and tall, Stocked England with a breed These spectral scenes upon 

As from the corniced wall Of men that made kings heed My mind, as night wore on 

Their shadows strode. Their subjects' rights. With deep'ning shade. 

Then hall and mansion wide Their spectral granduer showed And as my eyelids fell 

They filled on every side, In every step they trode They grew more palpable — 

With phantoms grand ; Through ancient hall, These spectres grand, 

While, at the outer gate, While women held their place That still, in Gunston Hall, 

Pressed carriages of state, Supreme in ever}' grace Hold nightly carnival, 

With spectral steeds to mate With which the Gothic race As fancy stirs withal 

The shadowy band. Invests them all. Her conjurer's wand. 

The Gunston estate was divided into the following named "quarters" or "plantations" 
Gunston, Occoquan, Pohick, Stump Neck, Hallowing Point, Dogue Run, and Hunting 
Creek. From these places the exports of grain and tobacco were large for many years 
after their clearing of the original growth of heavy timber. But other commodities 
were produced as appears from an account book of the proprietor before us, such as 
beef, tanned hides and wool. Of the last named article there are the following entries : 

1789 167 fleeces 397 p'ds. 

" 90 164 " 398 " 

"91 166 " 384 " 

"92 171 " 45S " 

George Mason, like his neighbor Washington, was orderly and methodical in all his 
business affairs, and his integrity in his dealings is a fact well established. 

GUNSTON HALL RESTORED. 
"Whatever was in condition to remain as it was originally, stands to-day, voicing in more eloquent lan- 
guage than could be conveyed by the most fervent patriot the spirit of the past. Thus the long, worn 
flights of sand stone steps leading to the porched entrances on the north and south fronts of the mansion, the 
mo^t beautiful external features of the house, have weathered the hundred and fifty years that they have 
stood and are now battered and hollow with age and long use. 

The principal entrance to the house is on the north side, and is made through a large, square porch, 
solidly built of brick and stone, with a peaked roof, supported in front by four Doric pillars of stone. 
The front door is crowned by a lunette of glass that corresponds to the arched front of the porch, and on 
either side are narrow hall windows. The southern portico is a smaller, octagonal structure, quite classic 
in its grace of form. In this picturesque retreat, doubtless, Colonel Mason was wont to entertain his dis- 
tinguished guests of a summer evening, where they might rest and be refreshed by the cool breezes arising 
from the quiet waters of Pohick Bay, as it was then called, now Gunston Cove, not many yards below. 



116 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

This porch is said to have been a favorite spot, too, for a quiet turn at draughts between Washington 
and Mason. 

The mansion is built of bricks that were imported from Scotland, and its walls, interior as well as 
external, have the thickness of three of these very large blocks. It is surmounted by a long, sweeping 
A irginia roof, that gives slope to the walls of the chambers in the second story, and necessiiates the quaint 
dormer windows that are an added feature of attraction. Four immense brick chimneys rear themselves 
high above the roof, from the four corners of which they spring, though they have their bases in the im- 
mense cellar that runs beneath the entire house. The present owner of the mansion has built a tall 
observation tower on the top of the house, sacrificing somewhat the architectural harmony of the structure 
to the pleasure of enjoying I he inimitable landscape spread before one for miles below. 

INTERIOR OF THE HALL. 

Within, the house has the admirable features of the best of the Southern mansions of its time, the 
wide hall running across the entire breadth of the house, broken only by a fine broad staircase ascending 
at one side, and in this case relieved half way down its length of wall on either side by a carved panel 
reaching from floor to cornice, where they form themselves into two graceful arches, that meet in the 
centre of the ceiling in a drop in the form of a huge acorn carved in wood. From both sides of the hall 
enter the chief rooms of the house, the doors curiously low in proportion to the height of the walls, with 
deep panelled casements, and opening into four apartments of fine dimensions. 

On the right of the main entrance is what is known as the Jefferson room, as here there is reason to 
believe that Thomas Jefferson consulted and talked over with his friend and settled many a question that 
is embodied in this country's laws, giving more than reasonable indorsement to the popular belief that in 
this room the American Declaration of Independence was practically framed. The room is at present 
modernly furnished with the elegant appointments of a lady's boudoir, being the sitting room of the 
daughter of the house, but its most prominent ornament withal is a fine bust of the third President of the 
United States. 

HISTORIC WHITE PARLOR. 

On the south side, and communicating with this room, is the handsomest apartment in the mansion, and 
is the room in which all affairs of especial ceremony took place. It has been alluded to as the White 
Parlor, taking the name from the ivory white woodwork in which it is finished. This woodwork is of 
particular note, being of a character in its elaborate hand carving and solidity that is not often reproduced 
today. However, the wood fitments of Gunston Hall are one of its notable features. George Mason 
brought over from England several workmen to erect and decorate the woodwork throughout his house, 
and they spent three years in accomplishing the task. The two doors in the White Parlor, its two large 
windows, and the recesses on either side of the big square open fire place are all incased in broad, 
fluted square pilasters with frontal S decorated after the chaste Doric designs. The heavy panelled doors 
are also finished with classic scrolls. A Northern architect visiting Gunston Hall not long since — 
fortunately it was not before the arrest of its decay — offered $3,000 for the woo 1 work of this room, which 
he had an ardent desire to transfer to a colonial mansion he was erecting near Boston. 

The plainer, though very handsome woodwork in wainscoting, cornices, doors, mantel and window 
frames, and otherwise finishing on the mansion's stately dining room, situated across the hall from the 
White Parlor, has an appropriate finish of oak graining. As one sits at the characteristically hospitable 
board of Gunston Hall, thought irresistibly travels back to former guests who have been regaled in this 
room. They present an imposing array — the great Washington himself frequently came over from Mount 
Vernon, six miles away ; Jefferson was a very frequent Gunston Hall guest; Adams, Madison, and 
Monroe, who was a political pupil of Mason; Randolph and Henry visited it; also the gallant La- 
fayette; in fact, all the notable statesmen of the time were guests at «me time or another of this "Solon 
and Cato," the law giver and the stern patriot of the age in which he lived. 

The library, occupying the north front of the house, is again handsomely finished in dark carved wood, 
with deep gla~-s inclosed alcoves in the east wall filled with shelving for books. 

Ascending the beautiful stairway, with its graceful, hand-turned, mahogany balustrade, one is surprised 
to find on tinning to the second (light, over the broad hallway at its bead, a series of graceful arches sup- 
1 by squ He fluted pillars. A broad hallway runs from end to end on this floor between the rows of 
chambers on either side, each with its individual feature of quaintness and beauty. The room occupied 
by Lafayette when he visited Gunston Hall is that situated in the southwest corner, with two small 
gable windows gathering all the possible warmth from the late sun, and its dormer window commanding 
a tine view of the sloping lawns below and the peaceful Potomac in the near distance." 

The " Princeton" Catastrophe - Bursting of the "Peacemaker." 

On the 28th of February, 1S44, a large party of ladies and gentlemen of Washington 
including President Tyler and the members of his Cabinet with their families, were in- 
vited by Commodore Stockton, of the navy, to pass the day on the frigate "Princeton," 
1\ ing at anchor off the ( itv of Alexandria. The day was fine and the company num- 
erous and brilliant, not fewer than four hundred in number of whom the majority were 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. Il7 

ladies. After the arrival of the guests the "Princeton" got under way and proceeded 
down the river a short distance below Fort Washington. During the passage down, 
the largest gun of the vessel, the "Peacemaker," firing a ball of two hundred and 
twenty-five pounds, was fired several times to test its strength and capacity. The gun 
had been constructed from a model of, and under the immediate direction of the 
commodore, and Mr. Tyler had manifested a great interest in its success. At two p. m. 
the ladies of the party were invited to a sumptuous repast in the cabin. The gentle- 
men succeeded them at the table, and some of them had got through and left it. The ship 
was on her return to her anchorage, and when opposite Broad Bay, the commander 
proposed, for the special gratification of the President and his Cabinet, to fire the gun 
again, a salute, as he said, in honor of the "great peacemaker" of his country — George 
Washington. Accordingly, all the members of the Cabinet started to go upstairs, the 
President with them, but at that instant they were called back to hear a toast proposed 
by Miss Wickliffe. It was this: "The flag of the United States, the only thing Amer- 
ican that will bear a stripe." This was received with great enthusiasm. The Pres- 
ident in response then gave as a toast, "the three great guns, — the "Princeton," her 
commander, and his "Peacemaker," This was loudly applauded by the ladies and 
then the members of the Cabinet started to go upstairs again. At this moment, Mr. 
Upshur, of Virginia, Secretary of State, had his hand on the President's arm and said 
to him, "Come Mr. Tyler, let's go up and see the gun fired," Just then Colonel 
Dade asked Mr. Waller, the President's son-in-law, to sing an old song about 1776, 
The President replied, "No, by George, Upshur, I must stay and hear that song; it is 
an old favorite of mine. You go up, and I'll join you directly." Accordingly, away 
went Upshur, Gilmer, and the others to see the gun fired. Messrs. Benton, Phelps, 
Hannegan, Jarnegan, Virgil Maxey, Commodore Kennon, Colonel Gardiner, and 
many others following. The President remained below, listening to the singing, and 
just as Mr. Waller came to the name Of Washington, off went the gun. "There," said 
the master of ceremonies, "that's in honor of the name, and now for three cheers." 
And just as they were about to give them, a boatswain's mate rushed into the cabin be- 
grimed with powder and said that the "big gun" had exploded and killed many of 
those on deck. On this announcement the shrieks and agonizing cries of the women 
were heart-rending, — all calling for their husbands, fathers, brothers, and so on, rush- 
ing wildly into their arms and fainting with the excess of feeling. When the gun was 
fired the whole ship shook, and a dense cloud of smoke enveloped the entire group on 
the forecastle, but when this blew away an awful scene presented itself to the spectator. 

The lower part of the gun, from the trunnions to the breech, was blown off, and one 
half section of it was lying on Mr. Upshur. It took two sailors to remove it. Mr. 
Upshur was badly cut over the eye and on his legs; his clothes were literally torn from 
his body, he expired in about three minutes. Governor Gilmer of Virginia, was 
found to be equally badly injured. He had evidently been struck by the section of the 
gun before it had reached Mr. Upshur. Mr. Sykes, member of Congress from New 
Jersey, endeavored to raise him from the floor, but was unable. A mattress was brought 
for him, but he soon expired. Mr. Maxey, of Maryland, had his arms and one of his 
legs cut off, the pieces of flesh hanging to his mutilated limbs, cold and bloodless in a 
manner truly frightful. He died instantly. Mr. Gardiner, ex-member from New York, 
and Commodore Kennom, lingered about half an hour, unconscious, and expired with- 
out a groan. The flags of the Union were placed over the dead bodies as their wind- 
ing sheets. Behind the gun, the scene, though at first equally distressing, was less a- 
larming. Commodore Stockton who was knocked down, rose to his feet and 
jumped on to the wooden carriage to survey the effects of the calamity. All the hair 
of his head and face was burned off. Judge Phelps, of Vermont, had his hat blown off. 
Nine seamen were seriously wounded and Colonel Benton and many others were stun- 
ned by the explosion. Such was the force of it that the starboard and larboard bul- 
warks ot the ship were shattered and the gun blown into many pieces. 

Judge Wilkins had taken his stand by the side of Governor Gilmer but some remarks 
falling from the lips of the latter, and perceiving that the gun was about to be fired he 
explained, "though Secretary of War, I dont like this tiring, and believe that I shall 



118 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

run," so saying he retreated, suiting the action to the word, and escaped injury. The 
most heart-rending scene, however, was that which followed. The two daughters of 
Mr. Gardiner, of New York, were both on board and lamenting the death of their father 
while Mrs. Gilmer from whom they vainly attempted to keep the dreadful news of the 
death of her husband, presented truly a spectacle fit to be depicted by a tragedian. 
There she sat on deck, with hair dishevelled, pale as death, struggling with her feelngs 
and with the dignity of a woman, her lips quivering, her eyes fixed and upturned, with- 
out a tear, soliloquizing, "Oh certainly not ! Mr. Gilmer cannot be dead ! Who could 
dare to injure him ? Yes, O Lord have mercy upon me ! O Lord, have mercy upon 
him !" And then, still more apparently calm and seeming to be collected, with the 
furies tearing her heart within. "I beseech you, gentlemen, to tell me where my husband 
is? Oh! impossible, impossible! can he, can he, can he be dead? Impossible!" 
Here Senator Rives of Virginia, drew near. "Come near, Mr. Rives," she said in 
a soft whisper, which resembled Ophelia's madness, "tell me where my husband is — tell 
me if he is dead. Now certainly, Mr. Rives, this is impossible." Mr. Rives stood 
speechless, the tears trickling down his cheeks. "I tell you Mr. Rives, it is impossible," 
she almost shrieked; and then again moderating her voice, "Now do tell his wife if 
her husband lives!" Here several ladies exclaimed, "God grant that she may be able 
to cry; it would relieve her" — "if not, she must die of a broken heart." 

A daughter of Mr. Gardiner, one of the victims of the ill-fated party and to whom 
the President was paying attention, and who in the following June became his wife, 
gave the following relation a few years ago. "When we got down to the collation 
served in the cabin the President seated me at the head of the table with him and handed 
me a glass of champagne. My father was standing just back of my chair so I 
handed the glass over my shoulder, saying, 'Here, pa.' He did not take it but said 
'My time will come.' He meant his 'time to be served,' but the words always seemed 
to me prophetic. That moment, some one called down to the President to come to see 
the last shot fired, but he replied that he could not go, as he was better engaged. My 
father started with some other gentlemen and left us. Just then we heard the report 
and the smoke began to come down the companion-way. 'Something must be wrong,' 
said a bystander, who started to go and see. He got to the door then turned around 
and gave me such a look of horror, that I never shall forget it. That moment I heard 
some one say, 'The Secretary of State is dead.' 1 was frightened, of course, and tried 
to get upstairs. 'Something dreadful has happened,' I exclaimed. 'Let me go to my 
father ! I cried,' but they kept me back. Some one told me that the gun had exploded, 
but that there was such a crowd around the scene it would be useless for me to try to 
get there. I said that my father was there, and that I must know if any evil had be- 
fallen him. Then they told me he had been wounded. That drove me frantic, I 
begged them to let me go and help him — that he loved me, and would want me near 
him. A lady, seeing my agony, said to me, 'My dear child, you can do no good; 
your father is in heaven.'" 

The bodies of the victims of this dire calamity, which casta gloom over the whole 
land, were taken up to the capital. Five hearses, conveying the remains of Messrs. 
Upshur, Gilmer, Kennon, Maxey, and Gardiner, followed by a long train of carriages 
and a great concourse of citizens, on horseback and afoot, passed in silence up Penn- 
sylvania Avenue and proceeded to the Executive Mansion. The coffins of the distin- 
guished dead were taken into the East Room and placed on biers to await the funeral 
solemnities which occurred on the Saturday following." 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



119 




OLD HISTORIC LETTERS. 

What is the harvest they bring us, 

Flotsam ot life and the years? 
Kissed by the dust in their sleeping 

Bathed in love's sunshine and tears. 

The enthusiastic delver among old historic records now and then finds himself in the 
presence of veritable apparitions of personages whose faces are seen no more save as 
they look down through the limnings of the painter from their lonely places on the old 
ancestral walls, whose voices were silent long generations before the time of his earliest 
memories. 

These are the apparitions : A bundle of letters, folded, tied and laid away, when and 
by whom, by what careful, loving hands no record tells us. They rise up from old 
trunks, boxes, barrels, and musty shelves, in dust strown lofts and garrets. To sit down 
alone in the quiet and open these bundles of missives, faded and worn, sometimes in tat- 
ters and hardly decipherable, is like taking a long journey backward through the vanished 
years, and holding pleasant communion with the dead, and learning somewhat of the 
lore of the times when they were living, moving actors on the world's wide stage. And 
we are glad to notice that an interest is at length being fostered among our people, 
though thousands of opportunities have already irretrievably passed away, for the 
bringing to light of such of these precious historic souvenirs as have escaped destruction 
and securing for them preservation from further liability to loss. 

The societies of the Daughters and Sons of the Revolution have shown a zeal in this 
direction at once worthy of commendation and general emulation. Whatever relates to 
the trials, sacrifices, habits, manners and customs of the ancestors of the colonial days — 
whatever comes up to the surface in the course of more studious investigation to throw 
new and more ample light on their home and neighborhood life takes on additional 
interest and fascination for all classes of our people, an interest that will increaseas the 
widening years go on, and as patriotic impulses become more and more the incentives to 
action. 

This letter taken from a bundle preserved with pious care through all the mu- 
tations of succeeding times, we open and read with feelings akin to awe. It is dated 
June 14th, 1723. It is to a correspondent in London and reads : 

Wakefield, Virginia. 

Dear Brother — We have not a schoolmaster in our neighborhood until now in nearely twenty years 



120 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

We have now a young minister living with us who was educated at Oxford, took orders and came over as 
assistant to B.e»v. Kemp, of Gloucester. That parish. is too poor to keep both and he teaches school for 
i I. I I. teaches sister Susie and me and Madame Carter's boy and two girls. I am now learning 
pretty fast. Mamma and Susie and all send love to you and Mary. 

The writer of this matter of fact epistle was no other than Mary Ball,' the young 
Virginia damsel at the age of seventeen, and who ten years later was to find favor in the 
eyes of Augustine Washington, and become the mother of the tuture commander-in- 
chief of the Continental armies and the first President of the United States of America. 

Not much is recorded of the youth and young womanhood of Mary Ball, daughter to 
Joseph Ball, son of Col. Wrm Ball who came to Virginia before ,16,69. Fromjier mother 
who died in 1 728 after a widowhood of many years she had doubtless inherited the noble 
qualities of mind and heart, and had been taught all those domestic virtues of which co- 
temporary testimony and tradition tell us. She was a bright exemplar of industry, frugal- 
ity, strength of will and purpose, obedient to the behest of duty, faithfulness and modesty, 
and with deep religkms convictions. Here is a letter from one of her friends which 
gives us a glimpse of her lovely girlhood: 

"W'MSBl Ri;rye 7th of Oct, 1722. 
Dear Sukey: — Madame Ban, of Lancaster, and Her Sweet Molly have gone Horn. Mamma thinks 
Molly the Comliest Maiden She know. She is about 16 yrs old, is taller than Me, is very sensible, 
Modest and Loving. Her Hair is like unto flax. Her eyes afe the color of yours and her Cheekes are 
like May blossoms. I wish you could See Her." 

Here is a letter or rather a note which has been handed down as an heirloom through 
many generations. The date is Wakefield, Va., 1 733, one year after the birth of George 
Washington, and it is in the handwriting of his father, Captain Augustine Washington, 
who with Mary Ball, his wife, are going to make a visit very soon to some of their friends 
in the neighborhood of the Old Homestead. They announce the time of their coming 
and their intention of bringing with them their "baby George." Through this brief 
note we get but a glimpse of far away events. Only the mere announcement of an after- 
noon or overnight friendly reunion. And this is all that will ever be known of the little 
social event thus briefly alluded to; bin it is a glimpse which may be readily widened 
into charming views of all its unnoted details and circumstances, accordingly as rein is 
given to one's fancies. Doubtless the infant, in swaddling clothes on this neighborly ex- 
pedition was everywhere hailed by kindred and friends with the usual exclamations of 
fondness and delight, but they did not perceive the brightness of his particular star 
hanging serenely in the heavens above and pointing to the future mission and the career 
of great renown. 

Here is a letter of great interest written to Mary Washington by her brother Joseph 
Ball on learning that there was some talk of entering her son George as a midshipman 
in the British navy. 

Stratford by Bow, London, 19th May, 1747. 
DEAR SISTER: 1 understand thai you are advised and have some thoughts of putting your son George 
to sea. I think he had better be put a prentice to a tinker, for a common sailor before the mast has by no 
means the common liberty of the subject ; for they will press him from a ship where he has fifty shillings 
a month and make him take three and twenty, and cut and slash him like a negro, or rather like a dog. 
And as to any considerable preferment in the navy, it is not to be expected, there are so many always 
gaping for it here who have interest and he has none. And if he should get to be master of a Virginia 
ship (which will be very difficult to do) a planter that has three or four hundred acres and three or four 
slaves, if he be industrious, may leave his family in better bread than such a master of a ship can, and if 
the planter can get ever so little before hand let him begin to buy goods fi 1 tobacco and sell them again 
for tobacco, ( 1 never knew them men miss while they went on so, but he must never pretend to buy for 
money and sell for tobaCCO. I never knew any of them but lost more than they got. He must not be too 
hasty to gel rich, but go on gently and with patience as things will naturally go. This method, without 
aiming to be a fine gi ntlem u his time, will cany a man more comfortably and surely through the 

world than going to sea. I pray God keep you and yours. My wile and daughter join with me in love 
and respect to you and yours. Your loving brother, 

Joseph Ball. 

Another letter is dated 1759, twenty-six years later. It is from Mary, the mother of 
George, to a relative in London. Her son is yet but little more than a boy, but he has 
been away from her for five years, exposed to privations and hardships untold in the war- 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 121 

fare with the French and Indians on the wilderness borders, and pathetically relates to 
her correspondent how grievous and afflicting to her has been his absence. But now 
she is glad he is coming home. 

And here is one of the messages she has received from her son George just after that 
disastrous battle of Braddock with the French and Indians on the Monongahela : 

Camp of Great Meadows, July 14, 1755. 
Honored Madame: — As I doubt not you have heard of our defeat, and perhaps have had it repre- 
sented in a worse light, if possible, than it deserves, I have taken the earliest opportunity to give an account 
of the engagement as it happened within seven miles of the French fort on Wednesday, the 9th inst. We 
marched on to that place without any considerable loss, losing now and then a straggler by the French and 
scouting Indians. When we came there we were attacked by a body of French and Indians whose num- 
ber I am certain did not exceed 300 men. Ours consisted of about 1,300 well armed troops, chiefly of 
the English soldiers who were struck with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is 
possible to conceive. The officers behaved gallantly in order to encourage the men, for which they suf- 
fered greatly, there being nearly 60 killed and wounded, a large proportion out of the number we had. 
The Virginia troops showed a great deal of bravery and were nearly all killed, for out of three companies 
there is scarce 30 men left alive. Capt. Poulson shared a hard fate, for only one of his men was left. 
In short, the dastardly behaviour of those they called regulars exposed all others that were inclined to 
their duty to almost certain death, and at last in spite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary they 
broke and ran as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them. The general, Braddock, 
was wounded and died three days after. Sir Peter Halket was killed on the field where died many other 
brave officers. I luckily escaped without a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two 
horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris, two of the general's aids-de-camp, were wounded 
early in the engagement, which made the duty hard on me, as I was the only person left to distribute the 
general's orders, which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half recovered from a violent spell of sick- 
ness that confined me to my bed and wagon for above ten days. I am still in a weak and feeble condition, 
which induces me to halt here two or three days, in the hopes of recovering a little strength to enable me 
to proceed homeward, from whence I fear I will not be able to stir until towards September. From your 
obedient Son, George Washington. 

In July, 1760, Widow Washington writes to her brother Joseph in London as 
follows : 

Dear Brother, this Corns by Captain Nickleson. You seem to blame me for not writeing to you butt I 
does ashure you that it is Note for a want for a very great regard for you and the family, butt as I don't 
ship tobacco the Captains never call on me, soe that I never know when tha com or when tha goe. I be- 
lieve you have got a very good overseer at this quarter now ; Captain Newton has taken a large lease of 
ground from vou which I Deare say, if you had been hear yourself, it had not been done. Mr. Daniel 
& his wife & family is well. Cozin Hannah has been married & lost her husband. She has only one child, 
a boy. Pray give my love to Sister Ball & Mr. Bowmon, his son in law & his Lady, & I am, Deare Brother, 
Your loving sister, 

Mary Washington. 

Mr. Joseph Ball, Esq., At Stratford by Bow, Nigh London. 

There is another letter extant, written by the same hand but feebler and more un- 
steady. It is to her son John Augustine, somewhere about the year 1781, when the 
long struggle of the American Revolution was still pending and the independence of the 
thirteen colonies was not yet an assured fact. Her son George had been long away from 
her again as commander-in-chief of the armies and again was exposed to great perils, 
and in the commotion and uncertainties of the times it was natural that the epistle of 
the good matron, now bowed with more than three score years and ten, and harrassed 
by many cares, should take the tinge of surrounding circumstances. She complains 
that the times are hard and that her estates are not yielding enough for her support, 
"that she is going fast, and is like an old almanack, out of date." 

We must not omit an epistle traced by the hand of George Washington when at the 
age of sixteen he was surveying the wilderness lands of his patron Thomas, Lord Fairfax, 
Baron of Cameron. His pen doubtless was a stray quill from an eagle or other wild 
bird — his table a fallen tree — his light a blazing fagot. It was written to one of his 
youthful companions, perhaps a schoolmate who had shared with him the rude academic 
trainings of schoolmaster Hobby in Westmoreland. 

Dear Richard : — The receipt of your kind favor of the 2nd instant afforded me unspeakable pleasure, 
as 1 am convinced I am still in the memory of so worthy a friendship I shall ever be proud of increasing. 



122 SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 

You gave me the more pleasure as I received it amongst a parcel of barbarians and an uncouth set of 
people. The like favor often repeated would give me pleasure altho I seem to be in a place where no 
real satisfaction is to be had. Since yo received my letter in October last I have not sleeped above three 
nights or four in a bed, but after walking a good deal all the day, lay down belore the fire on a little hay, 
Straw, fodder, or bearskin, which ever is to he had, with man, wife and children, like a parcel of dogs or 
cats, and happy is he that gets the place nearest the fire. There's nothing would make all this tolerably, 
but a good reward of a doubleoon, is my constant reward every day that the weather will permit my going 
out, and sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather will not allow my making a long stay, as 
the lodging is rather too cold for the time of year. I have. never had my clothes off, but lay and sleep in 
them like a negro except the few nights I have lain in Frederic town. 

G. Washington. 

Two letters more and we will close our chapter. They were written by the Hon. 
William Fairfax, the founder of Belvoir, on the Potomac. In 1750, accompanied by 
his son-in-law, Major John Carlyle, of Alexandria, he made a voyage to England to 
visit such of his kinsmen and friends as were still living in the old neighborhoods of 
his boyhood. Years of close attention to private and public affairs in Virginia had 
been wearing upon him, and he needed rest. His faithful wife, Deborah, had passed 
away from his side three years before. His son, George William, and his wife and 
children were domiciled in the Belvoir home. The first of these letters is dated, White 
Haven, England, July 6, 1750. 

The second is dated London, October of the same year, and both are addressed to 
Lawrence Washington. In them he gives a description of their voyage and seasick- 
ness, tells of the comfort they found in the plum cake with which they had been pro- 
vided by his daughter Anne, Lawrence's wife. He speaks of their remembrance of 
the Mount Vernon and Belvoir friends in their toasts while envoyage, of their meeting 
with cordial friends after landing in old England, of transacting business connected with 
the tobacco trade, of their solicitude for the well and sick at home, and of the pleasure 
they had received from home letters ; assures them that they will not forget their com- 
missions for the purchase of tokens in London, and in concluding indulges the hope 
that Lawrence Washington and his brother George will derive benefit from their visit 
to the springs. 

A voyage across the Atlantic ocean to the Old World in those times was one of no 
small undertaking. It was an event of a life time. There were no vessels for passengers 
exclusively, and the passage had to be made in the .ships, brigs or schooners of com- 
merce, many of them but poorly provided with the conveniences and comforts. Some- 
times the voyager was fortunate if favoring gales filled his sails and he crossed over in 
four or five weeks, but oftener through storms or adverse winds or besetting calms 
the time was as many months, and generally the "freshest advices" chronicled by the 
gazettes of the day from England and the other countries "beyond the seas" were quite 
old reading before they reached the firesides of the colonists. 

The old letters — the worn and faded letters written by hands which have been dust long generations. 
Now and then we take them from their places and read them over thoughtfully, as we have many times 
before, and then how they open for our visions the dim vistas of the past. Far away we can see lonely 
dwellings, rude, untarnished cabins, the outposts of civilization in the wilderness clearings, where in their 
ruddy firelights are gathered, groups of brave hopeful hearts, the makers and builders of the neighhorhoods 
and states. There are fading sails on the rivers and bays ; these outward bound with cargoes of tobacco and 
bearing letters — precious letters to the English friends in homes, three thousand miles away, some ot them 
from brave, hopeful hearts with cheerful story of how their lots have been cast in pleasant places. Some 
of them perchance from hearts less resolute ; and repining because of besetting struggles and hardships in 
the new homes. And there are sails incoming, descried with joy and swelling hearts for the expected 
friends on board, for the long looked for messages and tokens and presents for the pioneers. These are 
some of the shadowy throngings of the vistas which open to us when we unfold and read the faded letters. 
Fet ours then be the kindly office of gathering and preserving such of them as still remain scattered, that 
they be not lost. 

This searching and gathering and rescuing from destruction the faded and tattered waifs of hearts and 
fingers of the long ago is purely a labor of love and kindly instincts we know, with no compensation in 
dollars and cents and of a certainty there will be some who will put but little estimate upon our efforts, 
and tail to appreciate our motives and solicitude, bat there will be others, many others I doubt not, who 
will properly appreciate them and so, perhaps they shall not have been in vain. 



OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. 



123 



We want more facts concerning the old homesteads, the old families, the old churches, the old high 
ways, the old manners and customs — more about the heroic sacrifices of the brave pioneers, the honored 
and worthy fathers and mothers who set the hearth stones and the altars along the bays and rivers and 
creeks and by the mountains in the new found wastes and planted the germs of civil and religious liberty 
over them all. We want to learn more about the sturdy Continentalers who sprang to arms and filled up 
the regiments when flying couriers brought tidings of Lexington to the plantations along the Pautuxent, the 
Potomac, the Rappahannock, and the James. We want more enthusiasm in the direction of preserving and 
restoring the old historic houses which are fast falling to ruins — more care to keep in order the burial 
places, to reset the falling memorial stones, restore their fading inscriptions and keep up their inclosures. 




The Old Gateway of Mount Vernon, and Lodges. 

Through this gateway in Washington's time was the only carriage road leading to 
the Mansion of Mount Vernon. The road connected about one mile distant to the 
west with the Old King's Highway from Williamsburg by Alexandria and on to 
the Shenandoah. It was a much traveled wav and still used, but the approach for 
the great tide of travel which now sets in to the consecrated home is by the Electric 
railway and Steamboats. 




THE SWIFT SURE STAGE, 

STARTS FROM THE 




GREEN *|f?^dm THEE 



124 



SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS 




THE OLD VIRGINIA REEL. 

"Very sweet and very merry, very faint and far away, 
Now I hear the ancient fiddlers on the strings begin to play, 
Keeping time with swaying bodies and a kind of whispered croon 
'Till a host of dainty slippers follow to the dear old tune. 
* # * * 

Ah, the instruments are shattered and the strings are snapped in twain, 

And the fiddlers have forgotten and will never play again ! 

'Twas the creaking of the branches on the shingles to and fro 

That recalled to me the music and the mirth of long ago. 

But above the stars eternal in their faded pinks and blues, 

With the powder on their ringlets, and the buckles on their shoes 

I shall see the beaux and sweethearts in a long procession kneel 

And their harps will play the music of an old Virginia reel. Minnie Irving 



RB s 26 



SOUVCIE OLID 



HISTORIC LANDMARKS 



^j'OF ■ftS'^B 



VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND, 



FOURTH EDITION 



COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED 



A HAND-BOOK FOR THE TOURIST 



OVER THE 



Wasnington, Alexandria and mount Vernon Railway. 



BY 



W. H. SNOWDEN. 



APR. 24 1903 




TABLE OF DISTANCES OF VARIOUS POINTS FR0R1 RLEXflHURIH, V(I. 



MIII'.S 

Episcopal Theo. Seminary, Va. 2 

Springfield, Va 8 

Annandale, Va 12 

Fairfax Court House, Va. ... 14 

Centrevtlle, Va 18 

Bull Run, Va 23 

Warrenton, Va 50 

Ciiancellorsville, Va '55 

Culpeper, Va 60 

Rapidan, Va 72 

Orange, Va 77 

GoRDDNSVILLE, V»A 87 

Charlottsville, Va 105 

Danville. Va 231 

Appomattox, Va 189 

Williamsburg, Va 1G0 

Jamestown, Va 160 

Yorktown, Va 170 

Petersburg, Va 89 

Falls Church, Va 9 

Vienna, Va 14 

Leesburg, V' 40 

Herndon, Va 22 

Balls Bluff, Va 30 



MILFS 

Bluemont, Va 50 

Harper's Ferry, West Va. ... 55 

Winchester, Va 90 

Cumberland, ,Md 247 

Pittsburg, site Ft. Duquesne 3Uj 

Accotink, Va. 10 

Occoquan, Va 20 

Quantico, Va. 28 

Fredericksburg, Va 50 

Richmond, Va 110 

Chantilly, Va 19 

Colchester, Va 18 

Wilderness, Va 60 

Front Royal, Va 75 

Strasburg, Va 87 

Harrisonburg, Va 138 

Staunton, Va 148 

Norfolk, Va 21U 

Annapolis, Md 42 

Baltimore, Md 48 

Philadelphia, Pa 143 

NewYork.N.Y 238 

Bosto n , M ass 452 



